THE  BUSINESS 
OF  FARMING 


Wm.  C^  ^^MITH 


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How  to  Grrow  100  Bushels  of 
Corn  Per  Acre  on  Worn  Soil 

By  WILLIAM  C.  SMITH 

Author  of 
The  Business  of  Farming 

Pronounced,  the  world  over,  by  men  who  know,  to 
be  the  most  common-sense,  practical  and  interesting 
farm  book  ever  written  in  any  age  of  agricultural 
history. 

Thousands  have  said  that  it  should  be  in  the  hands 
of  every  one  interested  in  the  soil. 

And  some  have  even  said  that  it  is  worth  more 
to  the  cause  of  agriculture  than  any  book  upon 
the  subject  that  has  ever  been  written,  unless  it  be 
Mr.  Smith's  new  book  upon  The  Business  of  Farming. 

Uet,  $1.25 
STEWART  &  KIDD  COMPANY, 

PUBLISHERS  CINCINNATI 


■  •    •       **•*     • 

•  •  •  •••  •  •      • 


"THE  FARMER  OF  TO-MORROW." 

The  Brightest  Prospect  for  the  Business  of  Farming. 

"And  a  little  child  shall  lead  them." 


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for  the  Business  of  Farming, 
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THE 

BUSINESS  OP  FAEMING 


BY 

WILLIAM  C.  SMITH 

OF  Indiana" 

Author  of  "How  to  Grow  100  Bushels  of 

Com  Per  Acre  on  Worn  Soils"  and 

"The  Book  of  Vetch/' 


nniMES  are  propitious  for  agri- 
cultural books  written  simply 
and  understandingly,  free  from 
the  technicality  the  average  lay- 
man does  not  understand.    .'.    .'. 


••  •  •    •   • 

•  ,•  •     •  • 

•  *•  •       » 


«      •       •••••     **«*     •• 


CINCINNATI 

STEWART  &  KIDD  COMPANY 

1919 


Copyright,  1914,  by 
STEWART  &  KIDD  COMPANY 

All  Rights  Reserved 
Copyhioht  in  England 


MAFN  ?  'FSf?ARV„-Ar-p»!r"M  -rur»^  T^^ptT 


1st  Printing,  May  1914 
2d  Printing.  Jannary  1915 
8d  Printing,  Angust  1919 


DEDICATORY 
To  the  earnest  company  of  thoughtful 
humanity-loving  men  and  women  who  are 
working  with  might  and  main  to  bring  about 
better  methods  of  farming  and  farm  living, 
by  which  the  fertility  of  our  soils  may  be 
increased  and  maintained,  and  that  our 
farms  may  have  better  homes  and  home 
surroundings,    this    volume    is    dedicated. 


4 989 3 G 


SOME  REFLECTIONS 

)USINESS  is  nothing  more  than  being  in- 
dustriously engaged  in  the  affairs  of  some 
occupation  from  which  we  derive  our  sup- 
port. 

^ARMING  is  our  biggest  business.  It  feeds 
the  nations  of  the  world  and  is  the  basis  of 
all  prosperity  and  happiness,  and  therefore 
should  receive  our  biggest  consideration,  and  be 
safeguarded  by  our  best  brains  and  legislation. 

I'N  pioneer  days  when  farming  implements 
and  machinery  were  of  the  crudest  kind,  re- 
quiring muscle  to  use  them,  brawn,  more 
than  brains,  was  needed  in  the  business  of  farm- 
ing, in  order  to  rescue  soils  from  the  wilderness 
of  timber  and  prairie  growth. 

^N  these  days  of  worn  and  worn-out  soils  and 
the  abandoned  farm,  with  the  most  improved 
labor-saving  farm  machinery,  the  business 
of  farming  needs  brains  more  than  brawn,  that 
our  soils  may  be  rescued  from  the  wilderness  of 
wasted  fertility  that  has  stifled  them. 

JLTHOUGH  the  business  of  farming  requires 
in  its  operations  constant  industry  and  the 
exercise  of  thought  and  study  in  its  every 
detail,  in  order  to  make  it  successful,  yet  it  af- 
fords greater  opportunities  for  the  best  and  right 
living,  and  the  achievement  of  happiness,  than 
any  other  business. 


.    A  JUSTIFICATION 

Some  Biblical  writer  said  that  of  the  making 
of  books  there  is  no  end.  We  wonder  what  he 
would  say  if  he  lived  in  this  age  and  saw  the  pub- 
lication of  books,  in  number  almost  as  the  sands 
of  the  sea. 

In  the  face  of  this  book  multiplicity  we  can  offer 
no  excuse  for  the  publication  of  this  volume  fur- 
ther than  the  fact  that  the  importance  of  the  sub- 
ject treated  at  this  time  so  bears  upon  the  happi- 
ness and  prosperity  of  our  people  and  nation,  that 
it  becomes  an  impelling  motive  for  its  publication. 

We  do  not  make  the  claim  that  for  this  volume 
we  have  even  written  a  truth  not  yet  uttered,  but 
believe  we  have  placed  an  emphasis  upon  many 
truths  pertaining  to  the  business  of  farming  that 
has  not  been  previously  placed,  which,  according 
to  Drummond,  is  ample  justification  for  perpetra- 
ting another  book  upon  a  long  suffering  public. 

In  this  volume  we  have  simply  recorded  the 
knowledge  gathered  from  long  experience,  careful 
observation,  and  intense  study  of  the  subjects 
treated,  and  we  have  attempted  to  state  this  knowl- 
edge thus  gathered  in  a  simple,  untechnical  way, 
so  that  any  one  can  read,  be  interested,  entertained 
and  profited  thereby. 

Bacon  said,  ^  ^  Some  books  are  to  be  tasted ;  oth- 
ers swallowed;  and  some  few  to  be  chewed  and 
digested."     We  are  hoping  that  this  shall  prove 


10  A  JUSTIFICATION 

to  be  one  of  the  books  that  shall  be  '*  chewed  and 
digested, '*  for  the  subject  treated  is  the  very 
foundation  of  the  fabric  of  our  society,  as  the 
stability  and  progress  of  our  every  institution  and 
business  depends  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  busi- 
ness of  farming. 

When  God,  in  the  beginning  of  the  world,  made 
farming  the  first  business.  He  gave  it  a  setting  not 
given  to  any  other  business.  He  gave  as  its 
foundation  a  soil  full  of  the  mystery  of  plant  and 
microscopical  life,  where  His  wonders  are  revealed 
to  a  greater  extent  than  in  the  incomprehensible 
magnitude  of  the  region  of  the  stars.  And  there 
springs  from  this  soil  the  plant  and  tree  growth 
producing  the  myriads  of  products  of  varied  hue 
that  delight  the  senses  and  sustain  the  life  of 
man. 

All  manner  of  animal  and  bird  life  is  about 
to  contribute  to  the  farmer's  enjoyment  and  use 
in  a  thousand  ways. 

The  seasons  were  created  and  set  in  perpetual 
motion  that  seed  time  and  harvest  might  come  at 
certain  appointed  times.  The  clouds,  the  rain 
and  sunshine  come  also  in  their  appointed  place, 
assuring  us  of  God's  promise  that  seed  time  and 
harvest  shall  never  fail. 

Over  and  about  the  business  of  farming  God 
has  set  the  open  sky  so  wonderfully  mystifying 
to  the  mind,  and  delightful  to  the  eye,  and  the 
birds  of  beautiful  and  somber  plumage,  so  full  of 
song,  that  cheer  and  delight  the  soul.  Spring  with 
its  awakened  life.  Summer  with  its  growth  in  full 
swing.  Autumn  with  its  maturity  and  incompar- 
able coloring,  and  Winter  with  its  sleeping  life 


A  JUSTIFICATION  11 

and  mantle  of  snow,  are  exemplified  in  all  their 
glory  and  mystery  to  those  who  engage  in  the  busi- 
ness of  farming. 

Therefore,  if  the  author  has  presented  some- 
thing in  this  volume  that  will  cause  some  of  those 
who  are  engaged  in  the  business  of  farming  to 
feel  so  keenly  the  character  and  importance  of 
their  business  that  they  will  put  forth  the  greater 
effort  to  make  it  measure  up  to  its  intended 
standard,  he  will  feel  rewarded  for  his  efforts, 
and  justified  in  publishing  this  volume. 

William  C.  Smith. 
Delphi,  Indiana,  January,  1914. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Dedicatory    5 

Some  Reflections 7 

A  Justification  9 

CHAPTER  I. 
Historical  R6siim6  of  the  Business  of  Farming 19 

CHAPTER  II. 
The  Discouragements   and  Vicissitudes   of  the  Business  of 

Farming     38 

CHAPTER  III. 
Hindrances  to  the  Business  of  Farming 46 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Our  Worn  Soils  the  Greatest  Menace  to  the  Business  of  Farm- 
ing, and  How  to  Restore  Them 66 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  Profits  of  the  Business  of  Farming 82 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Equipments    Necessary    for    Carrying    on    the    Business    of 
Farming 89 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Necessary  Preparations  for  the  Business  of  Farming 101 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Putting  the  Soil  in   Condition  for  the  Carrying  on  of  the 

Business  of  Farming Ill 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Plowing      125 

CHAPTER  X. 
The  Preparation  of  the  Soil  After  Plowing  for  the  Seed  Bed. .   143 


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LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


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LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

The   Silo 180 

A  Farm  By-Product  too  Long  Wasted  and  Destroyed  upon 
American  Farms 185 

Good  Farm  Machinery  in  Use  upon  Well  Prepared  Soil  for 
the  Seed  Bed 198 

"The  Mortgage  Lifter" 203 

The  more  Elaborate  Expensive  Hog  House  with  Cement  Floor  207 

The  Simple  Cheap  Hog  House  for  the  Brood  Sow 211 

Plowing  with  Small  Gasoline  Tractor 216 

Another  Lesson  in  Pictures 224 

An  Old  Time  Worn-Out  Farm   Being  Restored  by  Modern 
Scientific  Farming 232 

The  Horseless   and  Canvasless  Binder,  Introducing  Another 
Era  of  Improved  Farm  Machinery 239 

The   Cover   Crop  "out  in  the  Orchard  where  the   Children 
Used  to   Play" 244 

The  Fruit  of  Vine  and  Tree  and  of  Varied  Hue" 256 

The  Neglected  Country  Graveyard 262 

The  Old  Farm  Home  at  the  Turn  of  the  Road 266 

It  Will  Soon  Be  "Good  Old  Watermelon  Time" 271 

The  Comfortable  Country  Residence  of  a  City  Doctor  Who 
Went  "Back  to  the  Farm  and  Made  Good" 278 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 


A  BRAWNY  PIONEER  OF  THE  TIMBER  BELT. 

He  belonged  to  the  "Farm  Age  of  Brawn"  which  was  succeeded 

by  the  age  of  Improved  Farm  Machinery. 

When  the  hill  of  toil  was  steepest, 
When  the  forest-frown  was  deepest, 

Poor,  but  young,  you  hastened  here; 
Came  where  solid  hope  was  cheapest — 

Came — a  pioneer,  , 

Made  the  western  jungles  view 

Civilization's  charms ; 
Snatched  a  home  for  yours  and  you. 

From  the  lean  tree-arms. 
Toil  had  never  cause  to  doubt  you — 

Progress'  path  you  helped  to  clear; 
But  To-day  forgets  about  you, 
And  the  world  rides  on  without  you — 

Sleep,  old  pioneer ! 

—Will  Carleton. 


THE 
BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

CHAPTER  I 

HISTORICAL    RESUME    OF    THE    BUSINESS    OF    FABMINO 

FARMING  is  our  biggest  business.  It  is  the 
great  heart  of  the  business  system  that 
pumps  the  rich  red  blood  of  commercial  activity- 
through  the  veins  and  arteries  of  the  world's 
business.  Soil  is  the  chief  item  of  raw  material 
from  which  the  finished  products  of  this  business 
is  made. 

The  1912  finished  products  of  the  business  of 
farming,  wrought  from  the  raw  material  of  the 
soil,  amounted  to  the  staggering  sum  of  ten  bil- 
lion of  dollars.  And  yet  this  vast  wealth  was  pro- 
duced by  a  business  the  most  poorly  organized  and 
conducted,  the  least  conserved,  and  the  most 
neglected  of  any  existing  business  of  this  age. 

At  a  cost  of  fabulous  sums,  methods  have  been 
developed  and  consummated  for  perfected  ma- 
chinery, better  distribution,  and  business  systems 
by  which  every  other  business  on  earth  may  be 
successfully  operated. 

Without  such  methods  and  systems  not  a  single 
modern  business  could  have  reached  its  present 
magnitude  or  greatness. 

19 


20         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

We  are  living  in  the  world's  greatest  commer- 
cial age.  The  iron  rails  of  the  roads  of  commerce 
stretch  out,  encircle,  and  twine  about  the  globe 
like  threads  of  twine. 

Titanic  ships  like  as  a  multitude  plow  the  waters 
of  the  oceans  and  seas,  carrying  the  people  and 
commerce  of  nations. 

Cities,  numberless  as  the  sands  of  the  sea,  have 
sprung  up  in  a  span  of  years,  mightier  in  girth 
and  magnitude  than  any  of  the  real  or  fabled 
cities  of  antiquity  or  of  any  ever  dreamed  or 
imagined. 

Our  nation  is  cutting  a  mighty  canal  through  a 
continent,  deep  and  wide  enough  for  the  sailing 
of  the  largest  ship  of  commerce,  and  is  turning 
the  failures  of  a  generation  ago  into  success. 

Mills  and  factories  of  staggering  dimensions 
whose  chimneys  belch  out  clouds  of  smoke  that 
shut  out  from  the  world  the  light  of  the  King  of 
Day,  are  building  and  turning  out  for  man's  use 
and  enjoyment,  those  wonderful  mechanisms  and 
inventions  of  the  modern  master  minds  that  out- 
class the  seven  ancient  wonders  of  the  world. 

Almost  instantly  we  communicate  with  and  talk 
to  our  friends,  leagues  away,  through  the  tele- 
graph, wireless  and  telephone. 

The  very  intonation  of  our  voices  is  recorded 
upon  the  phonographic  scrolls,  to  be  preserved 
that  we  may  converse  in  our  own  characteristic 
tones  for  ages  after  our  bodies  shall  have  been 
mingled  with  the  dust  of  the  earth. 

Machines  record  for  all  time  the  every  move- 
ment of  the  dramas  and  events  of  life  in  living 
reality,  to  be  reproduced  at  will  upon  canvas, 


HISTORICAL  RESUME  21 

not  only  for  our  own  deligM,  but  for  the  deligM 
of  generations  yet  unborn.  And  yet  all  these 
wonders  are  but  the  monuments  of  agriculture 
that  were  made  possible  only  through  the  busi- 
ness of  farming,  or  the  business  of  the  tilling  of 
the  soil,  and  emphasize  the  startling  fact  that  a 
partial  crop  failure  would  result  in  distress,  a 
total  failure  in  disaster. 

When  the  world  was  created  farming  became 
its  first  business.  After  God  had  said  *4et  there 
be  light''  and  there  was  light.  He  divided  the 
waters,  the  dry  land  appeared,  and  under  His 
command  it  brought  forth  grass,  the  herb  yield- 
ing seed,  and  the  tree  yielding  fruit.  He  created 
man,  planted  a  garden  and  put  him  into  it  to 
**  dress  it  and  to  keep  if  Satan  came  and 
tempted  man.  He  fell,  and  his  punishment  was 
banishment  from  the  garden  into  the  pathless 
wastes  of  the  wilderness,  burdened  with  the  awful 
sentence,  **  Curst  is  the  ground  for  thy  sake.  In 
sorrow  shalt  thou  eat  of  it  all  the  days  of  thy 
life,  and  thou  shalt  eat  the  herb  of  the  field." 

Thus  in  the  very  dawn  of  creation  the  tilling 
of  the  soil  became  the  source  of  man's  bread,  and 
his  first  business,  and  so  continued  until  the  world 
became  so  wicked  that  God  deluged  all  mankind 
with  His  waters,  and  none  but  Noah  and  those  in 
his  ark  survived. 

When  the  waters  receded  and  the  dry  land 
appeared  and  Noah  left  his  ark,  he  built  an  altar 
and  offered  a  sacrifice  acceptable  unto  the  Lord. 
And  the  Lord  said,  **I  will  not  again  curse  the 
ground  any  more  for  man's  sake."  And  Noah, 
after  he  had  offered  his  sacrifice,  began  to  be  an 


22         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

husbandman,  and  again  the  business  of  farming 
became  the  first  business  of  the  only  men  then 
upon  the  earth,  and  has  since  so  continued 
through  all  the  ages  of  man's  existence,  and  to- 
day, at  the  period  of  man's  greatest  development 
and  power,  he  still  must  **eat  of  the  ground"  or 
perish.  There  is  no  other  source  for  an  adequate 
supply  of  food,  so  the  business  of  farming, 
or  tilling  of  the  soil,  was  not  only  the  first  busi- 
ness to  be  established,  but  is  even  unto  this 
day  the  first  and  most  important  business  of  any 
nation,  and  upon  which  every  other  business  must 
build  for  a  foundation.  It  is  therefore  incon- 
ceivable that  a  business  almost  as  old  as  time  it- 
self, so  fundamental  to  man's  existence,  a  busi- 
ness whose  breasts  have  given  the  nourishment 
and  power  and  the  life  to  make  every  other  busi- 
ness or  achievement  possible,  should  have  through 
all  the  ages  of  the  world's  history  received  at 
the  hands  of  man  the  mistreatment  and  neglect 
that  the  business  of  farming  has  received  from 
the  hand  of  him  whom  it  has  fed.  But  it  seems 
that  the  history  of  the  world  has  been  but  the 
history  of  conquest  and  despoliation.  Nations 
and  peoples  have  conquered  nations  and  peoples 
and  despoiled  them,  and  so  has  man  in  all  his 
history  conquered  the  soil  from  the  wilderness, 
only  to  despoil  it  by  a  sordid  system  of  agricul- 
ture. If  the  business  of  farming  could  talk,  well 
might  it  exclaim:  ** Rescue  my  poor  remains 
from  vile  neglect ! '  * 

This  is  not  a  picture  or  wail  of  the  pessimist, 
for  do  we  not  hear  even  to-day  the  cry  of  a  John 
the  Baptist  crying  in  the  wilderness  of  soil  desola- 


HISTORICAL  RESUME  23 

tion  and  soil  destruction  to  flee  from  the  wrath  of 
worn  and  worn-out  soils? 

His  cry  was  even  heard  in  ages  past.  It  fell 
on  ears  deadened  with  greed  and  avarice  and 
stolid  indifference,  and  the  wrath  of  worn  and 
worn-out  soils  came  as  a  pestilence  and  swallowed 
up  nations  once  proud  and  great. 

When  the  gentle  and  loving  Savior  of  mankind 
and  his  disciples  walked  through  the  fertile  fields 
of  Palestine  plucking  the  ears  of  corn  for  their 
food,  he  was  on  the  mission  of  talking  and  teach- 
ing the  gospel  of  life  and  help  and  love  to  the 
multitudes  that  came  from  the  fruitful  valleys 
and  hillsides  of  the  fertile  Holy  Land  that  con- 
tained many  cities  of  commerce  and  power;  but 
now  these  cities  lie  covered  with  the  debris  of 
centuries,  the  fertile  valleys  and  hillsides  that 
sang  to  the  Christ  the  song  of  plenty,  lie  stripped 
of  their  fertility  by  a  system  of  soil  neglect  that 
mined  them  of  their  soil  wealth  and  they  have 
become  ^^a  dreary  desert  and  a  gloomy  waste." 

Romeward  the  student  of  history  delights  to 
set  his  face,  for  the  study  of  its  history  is  so 
fascinating.  So,  delving  into  the  history  of 
Rome,  he  finds  that  agriculture  was  once  its  big- 
gest business.  She  acquired  the  greatest  agri- 
cultural literature  ever  possessed  by  any  nation, 
and  under  its  inspiration  her  agriculture  so 
flourished  that  she  grew  in  wealth  and  power  and 
reached  the  pinnacle  of  her  greatness.  But  she 
forgot  the  source  of  her  power.  Her  agricultural 
operations  were  intrusted  to  slaves  or  bondsmen 
driven  under  the  lash  without  wages,  so.  her  soil 
was  neglected  and  her  fields  became  stricken  with 


24         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

sterility.  In  vain  her  Calumella  sounded  the 
warning  and  pointed  out  the  way  for  the  soiPs 
restoration,  but  his  warning  and  advice  were 
spurned,  **the  produce  of  the  land  was  only  four- 
fold," the  soil  suffered  from  greater  neglect, 
remunerative  crops  were  no  longer  harvested, 
and  the  nation  went  into  decay.  It  is  no  wonder 
then  that  Eome's  greatest  poet  became  imbued 
with  the  hopeless  creed  of  the  fatalist  when  sing- 
ing of  the  degeneracy  of  agriculture,  and  ex- 
claimed : 

"'Tis  thus  by  destiny,  all  things  decay 
And  retrograde,  with  motion  unperceived." 

The  wise  statesman  Joseph  gathered  and  gar- 
nered corn  as  the  sand  of  the  sea  from  the  fer- 
tile valleys  of  the  Nile,  and  so  have  generations 
since,  yet  these  lands  would  have  ages  ago  felt 
the  blight  of  neglect  had  not  old  Nature  sent 
down  each  year  from  the  headwaters  of  the  Nile 
the  silt-laden  floods  to  engulf,  renew,  and  enrich 
them. 

China,  standing  forth  in  the  list  of  agricultural 
countries,  whose  philosophy  likens  prosperity  to 
a  tree  with  agriculture  as  its  roots,  and  industry 
and  commerce  as  its  branches  and  leaves,  if  the 
roots  suffer  the  tree  dies,  has  a  vast  area  of 
abandoned  farms  once  fertile  and  productive,  the 
reclamation  of  which  has  been  called  the  **  Prob- 
lem of  China."  But  even  China  is  making  a  tre- 
mendous effort  to  maintain  the  fertility  of  most 
of  her  lands  in  cultivation,  but  she  has  done  it 
by  using  a  mixture  of  human  excrement  with  fat 
marl,  and  by  carefully  saving  every  substance 


HISTORICAL  RESUME  25 

that  can  be  converted  into  manure.  Horns, 
hoofs,  bones,  soot,  ashes,  old  plaster,  hair,  bar- 
bers' shavings,  contents  of  sewers,  vegetable 
refuse,  human  and  animal  urine  being  among  the 
substances  carefully  garnered  and  used  for  main- 
taining soil  fertility. 

Even  thousands  of  her  women  haunt  the  streets, 
alleys,  lanes  and  loafing  places  of  men,  and  with 
baskets  make  it  a  business  of  gathering  hu- 
man excrement,  to  be  used  for  soil  enrichment. 
Do  we  want  the  future  generations  of  the  women 
of  America  to  sink  to  the  level  of  gathering  human 
excrement  as  a  last  resort  that  our  soils  may  be 
stimulated  so  that  they  will  produce  the  **food- 
ful  ear''  that  our  hungry  hoards  be  fed?  Yet  the 
consummation  of  this  very  thing  is  no  *4dle 
dream";  it  will  become  a  living  reality  if  our  soil 
waste  be  not  stayed,  and  unless  sane  conserva- 
tion of  soil  fertility  becomes  a  part  of  our  agricul- 
tural economy,  and  unless  the  business  of  farm- 
ing be  conducted  as  our  great  manufacturing  and 
mercantile  establishments  are  conducted  and 
managed. 

The  poverty-famine-stricken-fatalistic-death- 
longing  inhabitants  of  India  have  become  so 
through  the  environment  of  exhausted,  worn-out 
soil  that  yields  such  a  scant  pittance  that  these 
people  long  for  death,  believing  that  somewhere 
beyond  this  pale  of  existence  there  is  a  land 
where  they  will  be  better  fed.  And  yet,  this 
famine,  poverty-cursed  land  of  mystery,  with  its 
fifty  rivers  winding  their  way  to  the  ocean 
through  unequaled  valleys  of  once  fertile  soils, 
was  at  one  time  peopled  with  a  race  out  of  the 


26         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

common  order,  who  wrote  the  most  remarkable 
sacred  literature  that  the  world  has  ever  known. 
Four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  square  miles  in 
Hindustan,  an  empire  in  itself,  capable  of  sup- 
porting a  mighty  people,  lie  a  waste  untouched 
by  plow  or  hoe, — ^*A  waste  too  bleak  to  rear  the 
common  growth  of  earth,  the  foodful  ear,''  yet 
an  area  of  soil  said  to  be  capable  of  yielding  rich 
harvests.  In  cultivated  lands  of  India  one  crop 
follows  another  in  quick  rotation,  and  only  such 
crops  are  grown  in  this  rotation  which  furnish 
food  for  man  and  beast,  which  crops  always  feed 
upon  and  consume  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  Those 
crops  which  produce  the  smallest  amount  of 
food  for  man  and  beast,  yet  feed  the  soil  with  the 
elements  it  needs  to  make  it  fertile,  are  unknown 
to  these  people.  No  means  to  enrich  or  build  up 
the  soil  are  used — not  even  manure,  for  fuel  is  so 
scarce  that  the  dung  of  animals  is  dried  and  used 
for  fuel.  India 's  soil  was  once  full  of  virgin  rich- 
ness. It  has  become  barren  through  cruel  neg- 
lect.   Her  fields  have  become  worn-out  soils. 

England,  Germany,  and  a  few  other  power- 
ful nations  of  the  old  continent,  a  century  or 
more  ago,  were  confronted  with  the  menace  of 
worn  and  worn-out  soils.  But  these  nations  rose 
to  the  occasion  and  realized  that  their  soils  must 
be  compensated  in  some  manner;  that  this  com- 
pensation even  meant  to  follow  the  spurned  ad- 
vice of  the  wise  Eoman  agricultural  writers  given 
centuries  ago  to  the  Eoman  farmer,  which  was: 
First;  to  plow  well.  Second:  to  plow  again. 
Third:  to  manure.  Fourth:  to  compensate  the 
land  by  planting  legumes   and  using  them  for 


HISTORICAL  RESUME  27 

green  manuring.  When  these  nations  began  to 
act  along  the  lines  of  this  splendid  advice,  their 
soils  began  to  appreciate  their  good  treatment, 
and  poured  into  the  laps  of  their  husbandmen 
their  increased  and  paying  crop  yields,  and  the 
truth  was  exemplified  that  even  poor,  dumb  soils 
can  show  their  appreciation  of  good  treatment 
and  compensation. 

Every  living  nation  of  the  old  continent  to-day 
which  ranks  lowest  in  the  scale  of  nations,  whose 
people  are  steeped  in  ignorance  and  are  wasted 
and  diseased  with  famine,  is  a  nation  which  pos- 
sesses in  abundance  worn-out  soils,  or  soils  which 
no  longer  produce  paying  crops. 

You  may  trace  the  progress  of  agriculture  from 
the  time  that  God  made  it  the  first  business  when 
He  planted  a  garden  and  put  Adam  into  it  to 
** dress  it  and  to  keep  it,"  to  the  time  when 
America  was  first  settled,  and  you  will  find  that 
generally  agriculture  has  been  carried  on  un- 
der that  system  that  has  led  to  the  soil's  neglect. 

When  the  tide  of  immigration  flowed  to- 
ward the  shores  of  newly  discovered  America, 
this  continent  of  ours  became  peopled  with  men 
who  brought  with  them  this  same  spirit  of  soil 
neglect  that  had  been  their  inheritance.  The 
early  colonists  of  Canada,  New  York,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Virginia,  Maryland,  etc.,  found  the  land 
rich  in  the  elements  of  fertility  that  Nature  gave 
it.  By  a  continual  system  of  plowing,  sowing, 
and  reaping,  it  yielded  for  years  bountiful  crope 
of  cereals,  vegetables  and  tobacco,  and  when  by 
this  process  the  soil  was  strangled  with  its  wasted 
fertility   and   the   farms   were   despoiled,   their 


28         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

owners  with  marble  hearted  ingratitude  aban- 
doned the  land  that  fed  them  and  sought  new 
soils  to  conquer  and  despoil,  for  they  said  in  their 
hearts,  America  had  of  lands  a  plenty. 

Unspairingly  did  Clayton  and  Beverly  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  Eliot  of  New  England,  denounce  the 
methods  of  husbandry  in  vogue  among  the  colon- 
ists, methods  by  which  tobacco  was  continuously 
grown  on  the  same  land  without  the  application 
of  any  fertilizing  material,  until  the  soil,  ex- 
hausted of  fertility,  would  no  longer  grow  any 
crop  and  then  was  abandoned. 

Those  colonial  farmers  for  years  scratched  the 
surface  of  the  soil  with  instruments  which  they 
deluded  themselves  into  believing  were  plows,  and 
so  became  imbued  with  the  erroneous  idea  that 
deep  plowing  ruined  the  land,  which  idea  seems 
to  have  been  inherited  by  many  of  the  farmers 
even  of  this  generation. 

The  agricultural  economy  of  conserving  soil  fer- 
tility was  never  practiced  by  these  people,  but  a 
system  of  soil  pillage  and  neglect  was  so  practiced 
by  them  that  vast  tracts  of  lands  through  every 
part  and  portion  of  our  eastern  states,  originally 
abounding  with  a  plethora  of  fertility,  in  less  than 
two  generations  were  exhausted  of  their  soil 
wealth  and  became  deserts  too  bleak  to  rear  the 
foodful  plants  that  feed  mankind.  These  lands* 
thus  robbed  and  plundered  along  the  Jerusalem 
and  Jericho  road  of  agriculture  by  the  soil  robber, 
the  highwa3anan  of  agriculture,  lie  bleeding  and 
sore,  awaiting  the  kindly  ministrations  of  agri- 
culture's good  Samaritan,  the  Soil  Doctor.    In 


HISTORICAL  RESUME  29 

the  meantime  Nature  is  applying  to  the  stricken 
victim  the  simple  slow  process  of  restoration. 

The  hosts  of  soil  conquerors  and  soil  despoil- 
ers  have  since  colonial  days  been  marching 
through  our  land.  For  after  the  American 
farmer  had  mined  out  the  soil  wealth  of  the  New 
England  states  by  sordid  tillage,  he  moved  west- 
ward, preempted  more  rich  virgin  soils  and  mined 
out  their  wealth  by  the  same  damnable  tillage. 
Not  content  with  the  waste  he  had  wrought  on 
the  soils  he  had  already  pillaged,  he  moved  on 
into  the  rich  forest  covered  soils  of  Indiana  and 
Kentucky,  and  the  prairie  soils  of  Illinois,  and 
laid  his  devastating  hands  upon  these  soils  and 
also  pillaged  them  of  their  fertility.  And  yet  not 
content  with  the  waste  he  had  wrought,  he  crossed 
the  ** Father  of  Waters,"  carrying  with  him  the 
same  system  of  sordid  tillage  and  devastated  the 
prairie  plains  of  Iowa,  Missouri,  Nebraska  and 
Kansas,  upon  which  Nature  had  for  centuries 
garnered  and  stored  fertility  which,  if  it  had  been 
carefully  conserved,  would  have  poured  out  its 
wealth  in  crops  for  ages. 

He  moved  on  to  the  Dakotas,  conquered  the 
prairie  sod,  worked  it  up  into  the  rich  seed  bed 
that  grew  crops  of  wheat  and  flax  for  a  genera- 
tion that  made  him  rich.  But  finally  Nature  re- 
sented the  infamy  of  one  continuous  crop  grow- 
ing for  years  upon  her  soils,  and  began  to  with- 
draw her  bounty,  and  now  that  vast  area  of  wheat 
and  flax  lands  does  not  produce  paying  crops  of 
these  grains  for  the  small  land  owner.  It  is  only 
the  large  land  owner  with  his  thousand  of  acres 


30         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

with  its  small  profit  to  the  acre,  who  can  success- 
fully farm  those  lands. 

Again  he  raised  his  eyes  and  looked  still  west- 
ward and  sought  more  soils  to  conquer  and  to 
pillage.  He  sighted  the  rich  valleys  of  the 
Golden  State  and  swept  down  upon  them,  and 
subjected  these  acres  to  the  scourge  of  a  con- 
tinuous one  crop  growing  of  wheat  until  the  soil 
refused  longer  to  give  up  its  increase,  so  he 
pushed  on  and  on  until  the  mighty  Pacific  stayed 
his  course. 

This  conquering  and  pillaging  of  the  fertile 
soils  of  the  Mi^issippi  and  Missouri  valleys  and 
the  plains  of  the  West  occurred  chiefly  during  the 
period  of  years  from  1870  to  1895  when  most  of 
these  soils  were  subdued  to  cultivation.  The 
larger  portion  of  these  lands  were  bare  of  timber, 
so  were  ready  for  the  plow.  It  was  a  period  when 
improved  farm  machinery  came  into  use  which 
resulted  in  extensive  rather  than  intensive  farm- 
ing. 

The  virgin  richness  of  these  soils  for  years 
poured  out  their  crop  wealth  to  the  farmer,  and 
while  difficulties  of  transportation  were  encoun- 
tered, yet  the  markets  were  congested  with  farm 
products  and  vast  quantities  found  their  way  to 
the  old  country,  and  other  nations  were  fed  from 
our  farm  products. 

The  great  cities  and  great  manufacturing 
plants  were  built  and  the  progress  of  our  coun- 
try was  wonderful,  but  as  the  fertility  of  these 
lands  was  being  slowly  mined  out,  though  crop 
production  increased,  there  was  no  money  in 
farming,    farmers   became   land   poor,    and   the 


HISTORICAL  RESUM6  31 

movement  of  both  men  and  boys  from  the  farm 
began.  Land  depreciated  as  well  as  fertility  of 
the  soil,  and  our  soiPs  crisis  became  a  part  of 
our  agricultural  economy.  Our  farmers  were  in 
a  helpless  condition ;  many  could  not  live  and  pay 
the  interest  upon  their  indebtedness,  and  fore- 
closure and  loss  of  their  land  resulted.  But  the 
people  of  the  world  continued  to  eat,  so  about 
the  year  1895,  when  our  lands  had  practi- 
cally been  all  subdued,  and  consumption  had 
caught  up  with  and  outstripped  production,  farm 
products  and  farm  values  began  to  advance,  which 
led  to  still  more  extensive  and  less  intensive 
farming.  The  growing  of  certain  grains  became 
profitable,  so  farmers  confined  themselves  to  one 
crop.  All  these  forces  led  to  a  further  lessening 
of  crop  fertility. 

For  a  long  period  farming  has  been  a  paying 
business  and  the  farmer  has  driven  his  farm  to 
its  limit  of  production,  and  its  soil  in  conse- 
quence has  been  sorely  neglected,  and  the  soil 
robber  has  become  more  bold  in  his  nefarious  oc- 
cupation of  robbing  the  soil  of  its  wealth. 

The  reader,  no  doubt,  is  impressed  that  the 
writer's  indictment  against  the  American  farmer 
is  too  severe  and  his  condemnation  too  strong, 
and  that  after  all,  agriculturally,  soil  conditions 
in  our  land  are  not  so  bad.  To  the  casual  ob- 
server this  may  seem  true.  He  reads  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  Reports  of  1912  bumper 
crops,  and  concludes  that  with  our  nation,  agri- 
culturally, all  is  well.  And  yet  if  we  compare  the 
1912  crops  with  the  general  ten-year  average,  we 
find  a  difference  of  but  a  small  per  cent.,  and  dur- 


32         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

ing  the  past  ten  years  have  not  all  our  crops  been 
consumed?  And  yet  many  of  our  people  have 
not  had  a  full  dinner  pail  or  a  loaf  of  bread  upon 
their  dining  table,  and  have  gone  to  bed  night 
after  night  suffering  the  pangs  of  hunger. 

Have  we  not  had  for  years  a  mighty  agitation 
as  to  the  **high  cost  of  living"!  An  agitation 
no  doubt  solely  responsible  for  the  concep- 
tion and  birth  of  a  new  and  powerful  political 
party,  and  for  a  mighty  political  party  with  a 
proud  history  to  go  down  in  humiliating  defeat, 
if  not  to  its  death.  Yet  after  all,  has  not  the 
**high  cost  of  living"  been  brought  about  by  the 
high  appreciation  of  the  products  of  the  soil? 

Our  nation  is  growing  at  a  tremendous  rate. 
A  million  of  foreigners  a  year  are  coming  to  its 
shores,  mingling  with  its  people,  and  yet,  but  lit- 
tle of  its  soil  capable  of  being  cultivated  is  un- 
reclaimed. We  have  a  hundred  million  of  people 
to  feed  and  less  than  one-half  of  them  are  pro- 
ducers of  food.  If,  then,  for  the  past  ten  years 
we  have  produced  crops  showing  a  general 
average  nearly  equal  to  the  average  of  this,  our 
most  prosperous  year  agriculturally,  and  those 
crops  have  been  consumed  at  high  prices,  which 
always  is  indicative  of  short  supplies,  how  can 
we  continue  to  feed  our  people  enough,  and  yet 
feed  the  people  coming  to  our  land  like  as  a  mul- 
titude? 

But,  really,  is  our  soil  condition  so  serious? 
Are  we  facing  a  soil  exhaustion  crisis?  Has  the 
business  of  farming  been  so  neglected?  To  an- 
swer these  questions  we  have  but  to  point  to  the 
fact  that  in  the  past  ten  years  our  population  has 


HISTORICAL  EESUME  33 

increased  21  per  cent.,  the  acreage  of  our  farm 
lands  4.8  per  cent.  In  other  words,  the  number 
of  mouths  to  feed  has  increased  nearly  five  times 
as  rapidly  as  the  source  of  our  food  supply,  and 
the  country  has  been  producing  less  per  acre  than 
it  produced  ten  years  ago. 

We  point  to  the  abandoned  farms  of  the  East, 
to  the  ** Volusia  soils''  stretching  from  the  Hud- 
son River  westward  across  Pennsylvania  into  the 
Ohio,  an  area  of  ten  million  acres,  once  fertile 
soils  occupied  by  fine  old  homes  and  barns,  now 
seemingly  unfit  for  cultivation,  and  to  the  ex- 
hausted cotton  and  tobacco  lands  of  the  South. 

Look  at  the  reputed  rich  com  lands  of  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois  and  Iowa,  upon  which  less  than 
fifty  years  ago  the  writer  has  seen  **King  Corn'' 
lift  his  proud  head  twelve  to  fifteen  feet  in  the 
air,  waving  and  rustling  his  rich  green  heavy 
foliage  with  every  passing  wind,  bearing  his 
heavy  golden  ears  beyond  man's  reach,  that  meas- 
ured to  the  husbandman  eighty  and  one  hundred 
bushels  to  the  acre,  where  now  he  sees  him  with 
dwarfed  and  diseased  body  bearing  his  shriveled, 
chaffy  ears  so  near  the  ground  that  it  becomes  a 
burden  to  gather  them,  ears  that  measure  less 
than  a  score  of  bushels  to  the  acre. 

And  this  latter  condition  is  not  a  limited  one  by 
any  means.  You  see  it  on  thousands  of  acres, 
and  it  applies  to  the  growing  of  all  crops.  Crop 
yields  on  these  lands  are  growing  smaller  each 
year;  the  area  of  worn  soils  grows  larger  and 
larger;  it  is  our  nation's  most  vital  disease  which 
has  insidiously  fastened  itself  upon  our  soils,  and 
like  a  cancer  existing  in  the  human  body,  **with- 


34         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

out  marked  symptoms,  not  appearing  so  bad  as 
it  really  is,  yet  becomes  active  upon  some  slight 
occasion,''  and  plunges  its  victim  into  excru- 
ciating suffering  and  lingering  death. 

R.  G.  Dunn  &  Co.  say  that  *Hrue  national  pros- 
perity springs  from  the  soil,"  but  it  will  never 
spring  from  a  soil  so  diseased  that  it  produces 
crops  of  a  stunted  growth. 

We  have  shown  how  a  people  living  on  a  weak, 
worn  soil,  are  listless  and  without  ambition. 
Their  soil  yielding  barely  enough  to  furnish  food 
to  sustain  their  lives,  they  have  nothing  left  with 
which  to  buy  any  of  the  comforts  of  life,  or  to 
employ  the  means  by  which  their  soils  can  be 
made  to  produce  paying  crops.  Their  energy  is 
sapped  up  by  this  discouraging  environment. 
This  very  condition  exists  to-day  to  an  alarming 
extent  among  the  people  in  the  *^ Highlands"  or 
mountain  districts  of  the  South.  These  people 
are  the  descendants  of  the  signers  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  and  heroes  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  and  the  blue  blood  of  the  best  cit- 
izens of  colonial  days  courses  through  their  veins. 
They  would  be  a  proud,  prosperous  and  useful 
people  were  they  but  possessed  of  fertile  soils, 
but  as  it  is,  their  spirit  is  broken,  their  pride  is 
gone,  they  are  victims  of  a  soil  that  has  withdrawn 
from  them  its  bounty,  because  it  has  become  worn 
and  unproductive. 

These  same  conditions  are  obtaining  in  every 
portion  of  our  country,  even  in  the  rich  corn-belt 
district.  The  writer  sees  it  every  day.  Farms 
once  rich  and  fertile  which  have  in  the  past  made 
their  owners  rich,  but  which  now,  after  experi- 


HISTORICAL  RESUME  dS) 

encing  forty  or  fifty  years  of  a  mining  process 
by  which  the  main  elements  of  soil  fertility  have 
been  mined  out  of  them,  are  now  in  the  possession 
of  men  and  their  families  that  possess  the  same 
broken,  discouraged  spirit  as  the  *^ Highlanders*' 
of  the  South  who  do  not  seem  to  be  able  to  lift 
themselves  above  their  environment  and  change 
the  condition  of  their  soil. 

And  as  our  soils  continue  to  grow  poorer  and 
poorer  this  condition  of  our  people  will  become 
more  acute  and  spread  like  an  infectious  disease. 

But  what  has  caused  or  brought  about  this 
alarming  condition?  Greed,  environment  and 
preaching  of  false  agricultural  doctrines.  The 
farmer  of  the  past  found  the  soil  rich  in  all  the 
elements  that  make  a  fertile  soil.  He  scorned 
the  study  of  scientific  agriculture.  His  policy 
was  to  haul  to  the  barn  everything  that  grew  upon 
his  soil.  With  match  he  burned  the  fertilizing 
by-products  of  his  farm.  He  forgot  that  soil  is 
a  ^*  living,  breathing  thing, '*  and  like  his  beasts 
must  be  fed  and  groomed.  His  main  thought  was 
the  dollars  that  could  be  produced  from  his  farm 
products.  Is  it  any  wonder  then  that  his  soil 
was  strangled  with  its  wasted  fertility? 

We  have  shown  how  the  pioneer  found  our  rich 
soils,  rescued  them  from  the  wilderness  and  sub- 
jected them  to  the  growing  of  crops  for  gain. 
These  soils  were  rich  in  every  element  necessary 
to  a  fertile  soil  which  would  produce  a  hundred- 
fold for  a  generation  or  more,  and  so  these  pioneer 
farmers  did  not  see  the  need  of  soil  conservation. 
They  became  imbued  with  the  false  notion  that 
their  soils  would  never  wear  out.    Under  this 


36         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

condition  of  false  security  the  pioneer  farmer  did 
not  teach  his  children  the  principles  of  soil  con- 
servation, and  these  children  grew  up  impreg- 
nated with  the  same  false  notions,  transmitted 
them  to  their  children,  and  thus  an  environment 
has  been  thrown  around  the  pioneer  farmer,  his 
children  and  children's  children,  an  environment 
that  has  held  scientific  agriculture  and  book  farm- 
ing in  contempt,  and  which  has  led  to  methods  that 
have  mined  our  soil  wealth  and  which  is  responsi- 
ble for  much  of  our  worn  soil. 

Again  the  voice  of  the  False  Teacher  has  been 
heard  upon  our  farms,  and  we  have  listened  to 
the  promulgation  of  the  false  doctrine  that  crop 
rotation  alone,  and  like  doctrines,  would  maintain 
the  fertility  of  our  soils. 

Even  our  Government  through  its  great  agri- 
cultural department  that  has  done  so  much  to 
make  the  business  of  farming  flourish,  has  pro- 
mulgated the  infamous  doctrine  that  our  soil  is 
in  no  real  danger  of  exhaustion  and  that  soil  will 
not  wear  out,  and  yet  almost  within  a  bird's  eye 
view  from  the  dome  of  our  splendid  capitol  at 
Washington,  thousands  of  acres  of  agricultural 
lands  lie  abandoned,  which  less  than  one  hundred 
years  ago  were  occupied  by  a  hospitable,  chivalric 
people  living  in  the  stately  southern  homes  and 
mansions  surrounded  by  fertile  fields  abounding 
with  a  plethora  of  farm  produce.  Why  have 
these  once  splendid  fields  become  a  desolation,  a 
dreary  waste?  Because  their  soils  lost  their 
power  to  produce  paying  crops,  and  so  became 
worn  out.  Scientifically  speaking,  these  soils 
were  not  destroyed,  they  still  contain  plant  food 


HISTORICAL  RESUME  37 

elements,  but  nevertheless  they  are  so  worn  out 
that  they  no  longer  produce  the  crops  that  pay 
for  the  labor  required  to  grow  them,  although 
they  were  farmed  with  proper  tillage  and  under 
proper  rotation  of  crops. 

Lexicographers  define  the  word  exhaust  as  to 
drain,  to  use  or  expend  wholly  or  until  the  supply 
comes  to  an  end ;  to  deprive  wholly  of  strength,  to 
use  up,  to  wear  or  tire  out,  to  wear  out.  If,  then, 
these  soils  were  abandoned  because  their  owners 
could  no  longer  grow  upon  them  sufficient  crops 
to  support  them,  was  not  their  fertility  ex- 
hausted? To  us  laymen  of  agriculture,  it  cer- 
tainly seems  that  they  were  exhausted  and  that 
our  great  Agricultural  Department  has  promul- 
gated a  vicious  doctrine,  the  teaching  of  which,  if 
followed  by  the  farmers  of  America,  will  lead 
every  acre  of  our  agriculture  lands  towards  and 
into  the  doom  of  the  abandoned  farm. 

Thus  the  Nation's  worn  and  worn-out  soils, 
our  stern  inheritance,  become  its  most  vital  dis- 
ease, and  our  greatest  business  is  threatened  with 
serious  injury. 

We  must  realize  that  this  is  the  most  serious 
problem  confronting  the  husbandman  to-day,  and 
unless  we  realize  this  menace  to  our  nation's 
prosperity  and  combat  it,  this  nation  of  ours  will 
perish  from  the  face  of  the  earth  as  surely  as 
many  of  the  dead  nations  of  history  perished 
from  the  same  cause. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE     DISCOURAGEMENTS     AND     VICISSITUDES     OF     THE 
BUSINESS   OF   FAEMING 

EVERY  human  being  is  susceptible  to  the 
influences  of  discouragement.  Many  pos- 
sess the  happy  faculty  of  presenting  to  the  world 
a  front  that  shows  no  evidence  of  its  blighting 
effects,  and  surely  thrice  happy  is  he  who  can 
meet  the  discouragements  of  life  with  that  human 
courage  we  call  grand  and  sublime. 

We  who  are  susceptible  to  the  influences  of  dis- 
couragement, would  gain  much  courage  and  help 
if  we  would  but  remember  that  even  the  Christ, 
when  on  earth,  came  under  the  crushing  power  of 
discouragement,  for,  when  he  learned  that  one  of 
his  disciples  had  bargained  to  betray  him  for 
thirty  pieces  of  silver,  and  that  another  had  pur- 
posed in  his  heart  to  deny  him,  he  came  to  Geth- 
semane  with  a  heart  and  body  broken  and  bowed 
down  with  exceeding  sorrow  and  discouragement, 
fell  upon  his  face,  and  prayed  for  the  passing  of 
the  cup.  Yet,  in  that  hour  of  quiet  prayer  within 
the  stillness  of  Gethsemane,  he  gained  the  cour- 
age that  bore  him  through  the  greater  trial  of 
the  Cross,  Calvary  and  death. 

There  is  not  a  business  but  has  its  periods  of 
discouragements,  its  drawbacks,  its  vicissitudes. 
Panics  come,  sweep  away  the  fortunes  of  business 

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DISCOUEAGEMENTS  39 

men,  and  leave  them  stranded  with  naught  but 
hope  remaining.  We  who  are  engaged  in  the 
business  of  farming  know  of  the  discouragements 
that  beset  it. 

The  vicissitudes  of  weather  are  such  that  we 
are  often  unable  in  the  spring  to  put  the  soil  at 
the  right  time  in  proper  condition  for  the  plant- 
ing of  seed,  or  to  get  the  seed  planted  at  its  ap- 
pointed time.  And  the  seeds  we  plant  may  be  so 
inferior  that  they  will  not  germinate  and  grow, 
or  grow  and  produce  crops  of  inferior  quality 
and  productiveness. 

Periods  of  drought  come  with  their  exaspera- 
tions, difficulties  and  problems.  Constant  rain  at" 
harvest  may  in  a  short  period  of  time  destroy 
the  matured  crop  before  it  can  be  harvested,  and 
we  are  not  without  the  devastation  of  fire  and 
flood. 

Every  crop  grown  upon  the  farm,  whether  fruit 
or  vegetable,  and  every  animal  or  fowl  on  the 
farm,  has  its  insect  pest  or  fatal  disease,  and  the 
farmer  must  ever  be  on  the  alert  and  fight  them 
with  vigor  or  they  leave  destruction  and  death  in 
their  track. 

Even  the  soil  has  its  ills  and  its  diseases,  loses 
its  power  to  produce,  and  requires  the  services 
of  a  soil  doctor. 

And  then  there  are  the  perplexing  questions 
pertaining  to  the  marketing  of  the  farm  produce. 
Conditions  obtain  that  not  only  prevent  the  mar- 
keting of  certain  products,  but  beat  down  and  de- 
stroy the  profit,  and  even  cause  the  marketing  of 
produce  for  less  than  cost  of  production  and  actual 
loss.    Or  there  may  be  the  entire  lack  of  market, 


40        THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

and  the  farmer's  produce  rots  in  the  fields.  So 
if  the  farmer  is  not  a  brave  man  with  the  true 
spirit  of  fight  within  him,  and  so  equipped  to  fight 
the^  discouragements  that  constantly  beset  the 
business  of  farming,  he,  too,  passes  under  the 
baleful  influences  of  discouragement. 

But  when  he  comes  under  such  influences  he 
can,  as  every  other  discouraged  man  can,  gain 
much  comfort  and  relief  in  the  study  of  compari- 
son. Compare  your  condition  with  your  less 
fortunate  neighbor,  and  you  will,  if  your  mind  has 
not  already  become  imbittered  with  the  spirit  of 
a  malcontent,  find  that  after  all  there  is  much  in 
your  life  for  which  you  should  be  thankful,  and 
for  which  you  are  under  obligations  to  show  your- 
self a  man,  that  your  less  fortunate  neighbor  may 
be  helped  in  deed  and  by  your  example. 

The  awful  depressing  shadow  of  discourage- 
ment must  needs  fall  upon  us  all  that  we  may  bet- 
ter enjoy  the  lit  up  landscapes  of  life. 

There  are  periods  in  the  life  of  each  one  of  us 
when  we  flee  to  our  gardens  of  Gethsemane, 
where  we  fall  upon  our  faces  and  pray  for  the 
passing  of  the  cup  of  discouragement.  For  how 
often  we  exclaim:  **Let  me  hide  in  the  hidden 
cleft  of  the  rocks  far  away  from  the  haunts  of 
men  where  we  can  be  alone  with  Nature  that  she 
may  heal  the  stinging  wounds  of  discourage- 
ment.'' When  these  periods  of  discouragement 
come  to  us  who  are  engaged  in  the  business  of 
farming,  we  should  rise  phoenix-like  from  its 
ashes,  go  out  and  seek  some  work,  and  apply  our- 
selves to  it  so  vigorously  that  it  will  set  the  slug- 
gish blood  in  our  veins  to  so  active  a  circulation 


DISCOURAGEMENTS  41 

that  it  will  in  a  short  time  throw  off  our  depres- 
sion, and  will  bring  us  into  the  sunlight  of  hope 
and  good  cheer.  And  we  will  then  be  the  men  and 
women  God  intended  we  should  be. 

When  man  or  woman  is  under  the  environment 
of  discouragement,  then  the  Devil  is  reaping  his 
best  harvest,  for  to  give  way  to  the  wiles  of  dis- 
couragement is  but  seeking  the  courts  of  the 
Devil  where  we  become  easy  prey  to  the  multi- 
plicity of  temptations  there  abounding,  the  yield- 
ing to  which  brings  misery  and  death. 

In  periods  of  sunshine  we  should  avoid  the  do- 
ing of  those  things  that  are  apt  to  bring  about 
conditions  that  surely  lead  to  discouragements. 
But  when  the  trials  of  life  do  o'er  take  us,  we 
must  be  bigger  than  our  troubles  and  rise  to  the 
heights  of  human  courage.  Hard,  do  you  say  I 
Yes,  if  we  allow  ourselves  to  get  the  grouch  habit. 
But  if  we  cultivate  the  spirit  of  thankfulness  and 
contentment,  try  to  be  satisfied  with  our  lot  in 
life,  if  there  is  no  legitimate  way  to  improve  it, 
we  can  find  much,  even  in  the  trials  and  sorrows 
of  life,  for  which  to  be  thankful,  and  much  for 
encouragement.  At  least  we  would  see  success 
where  we  now  see  failure,  or  would  see  opportuni- 
ties upon  which  we  could  lay  our  hold  and  ham- 
mer out  from  them  success  and  fortune. 

The  farmer  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  has 
the  least  cause  to  be  discouraged  with  his  busi- 
ness. It  always  affords  him  shelter  and  some- 
thing to  eat  and  wear.  He  is  more  independent 
of  strikes,  business  depression,  or  panics,  or  other 
disturbances  in  the  business  world  than  any  other 
business  or  profession.    So  there  is  little  excuse 


42         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

for  him  to  whine  and  get  the  grouch  spirit  when 
discouragement  settles  upon  him. 

But  above  everything  he  should  avoid  the 
** kicking  habit/'  unless  he  contracts  the  right 
sort  of  a  ** kicking  habit."  For  there  are  two 
kinds  and  we  should  strive  to  possess  the  one,  the 
other  we  should  avoid  as  we  do  a  pestilence. 

The  two  are  easily  distinguished.  The  one  is 
kicking  against  some  bad  law  or  condition,  some 
obnoxious  person,  or  some  wrongs  that  really  and 
truly  exist.  The  other  is  the  kicking  against  the 
unseen,  the  unapproachable,  Nature's  immutable 
laws,  true  progress  and  improvement,  and  the 
natural  laws  of  trade,  commerce  and  finance. 

John  Kendrick  Bangs  in  the  little  couplet 

"IVe  never  found  by  kicking  yet 
That  I  could  make  a  di*y  day  wet : 
But  I  can  make  a  wet  day  fair 
By  putting  on  a  smiling  air," 

shows  the  utter  folly  of  kicking  against  conditions 
that  no  human  agency  could  possibly  change,  and 
shows  us  how  we  may  turn  such  conditions  to  our 
everlasting  advantage. 

The  farmer  can  so  easily  cultivate  the  grouch 
pessimistic  spirit  by  everlasting  kicking  against 
the  unpreventable  conditions,  so  he  should  ever 
strive  to  rise  to  sublime  heights  and  take  the^ 
sting  from  them  with  the  **  smiling  air"  which 
scatters  the  darkest  clouds  and  lights  up  the  most 
sorrowful  face  with  luminous  joy. 

But  the  farmer  should  cultivate,  as  every  other 
good  citizen  should,  the  true  kicking  spirit  as 


DISCOURAGEMENTS  43 

given,  for  I  would  have  every  farmer  to  be  a  cour- 
ageous man,  a  man  alive  to  the  evils  and  wrongs 
that  abound,  and  possessed  with  the  spirit  of 
righteous  indignation  and  expression  against 
them.  Don't  drift  with  the  indifferent,  unthink- 
ing, backboneless  crowd.  Be  a  kicker  among  the 
kickers,  that  do  the  kicking  that  pays.  Kick 
against  the  trade  and  marketing  evils  that  beset 
your  business.  Kick  against  the  liquor  traffic, 
child  of  the  Devil,  that  has  always  shown  itself 
proud  of  its  parentage  and  ever  the  foe  to  your 
best  interests,  and  kick  from  your  farms  any  bad 
condition  that  hinders  true  progress,  mars  the  hap- 
piness of  yourself  or  family,  and  remember,  while 
you  are  kicking,  that  kicking  will  never  make  a 
**dry  day  wet''  or  a  **wet  day  fair,"  restore  the 
spilled  milk  to  the  overturned  pail,  **mend  the 
broken  treasure,"  but  that  the  ** smiling  air"  will 
dispel  the  gloom  of  the  wet  and  the  dry  day,  fill 
another  pail  with  milk  and  repair  or  replace  the 
broken  treasure. 

In  fine,  we  should  get  into  the  game  of  life  and 
play  it  with  the  vim  and  vigor  exercised  by  the 
athlete.  Inactivity  is  a  mental  state  and  disease, 
caused  largely  by  discouragements,  and  God  pity 
the  man  or  woman  who  falls  under  its  deadly  in- 
fluence. 

It  is  said  that  the  white  blood  corpuscles  in  the 
blood  of  man  are  the  big  policemen  that  accom- 
pany the  blood  through  our  veins,  arresting  and 
destroying  the  bacteria  that  brings  disease  and 
death  to  our  bodies.  They  are  active  in  the  body 
of  the  man  or  woman  full  of  life  and  activity.    So 


44         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

if  we  would  live  possessed  fully  of  our  every 
faculty,  we  must  get  into  the  game  of  life  with 
that  activity  that  will  give  the  white  corpuscles 
a  chance  to  do  their  work,  and  when  we  have  done 
that,  the  discouragements  will  not  overtake  us. 

We,  too,  should  remember  that  happiness  is 
largely  a  state  of  the  mind.  He  who  possesses 
a  '^conscience  clear,  a  mind  at  ease^'  and  can  be 
amused  by  the  ''simple  pleasures  that  always 
please,''  has  won  its  elusive  smile.  But  to  pos- 
sess the  "conscience  clear,''  we  must  be  engaged 
in  honest  employment  or  business  and  give  the 
"square  deal"  to  our  fellow  man. 

To  possess  the  mind  at  ease  is  not  to  do  the 
things  that  prick  the  conscience,  be  possessed  of 
a  healthy  body  and  ever  be  industriously  engaged 
about  something  worth  while,  ever  remembering 
and  giving  due  obeisance  to  the  God  that  holds 
our  destinies  in  his  hands. 

To  possess  the  simple  pleasures  is  within  the 
reach  of  us  all,  for  it  is  nothing  more  than  en- 
joying the  harmless  pleasures  that  do  not  over 
excite,  and  stimulate,  and  which  are  incident  to 
our  stations  in  life,  within  the  reach  of  all,  and 
that  satisfy,  if  our  minds  be  in  the  right  condi-' 
tion.  Sighing  and  striving  for  the  pleasures  and 
the  things  above  our  station  in  life,  even  though, 
we  could  possess  them,  would  not  add  one  mite  to 
our  happiness,  and  is  the  pricking  thorn  that  irri- 
tates, producing  the  festering,  poisoned  sore  of 
unrest  and  unhappiness. 

These  reflections  upon  discouragements  and 
their  cure  are  here  recorded  because  the  author 
knows  that  every  farmer  is  subject  to  their  in- 


DISCOUBAGEMENTS  45 

fluences,  and  if  he  is  not  helped  to  <;ombat  them, 
the  business  of  farming  is  surely  injured,  and 
they  constitute  a  good  prelude  to  the  discussion  of 
subjects  to  follow. 


CHAPTER  III 

HINDEANCES   TO  THE  BUSINESS   OF   FARMING 

WE  have  already  touched  upon  one  of  the 
chief  hindrances  to  the  business  of  farm- 
ing, that  of  the  resentment  on  the  part  of  so  large 
a  per  cent,  of  those  engaged  in  the  business 
against  agricultural  teaching  and  training.  But 
we  have  shown  that  this  condition  is  being  fast 
eliminated  from  our  farms  by  the  rapid  inaugura- 
tion of  agricultural  teaching  and  training  in  our 
public  schools  and  colleges.  When  our  young 
men  and  women  are  taught  and  trained  to  agricul- 
ture, the  spell  of  indifference,  resentment  to  bet- 
ter farm  methods,  and  pioneer  environments  will 
become  broken  and  will  no  longer  constitute  a 
hindrance  to  the  business. 

In  the  past  there  has  been  a  steady  stream  of 
boys  and  girls  winding  its  way  from  the  farm  to 
the  city.  But  few  of  the  boys  and  girls  caught 
up  by  this  ever  flowing  stream  returned  to  the 
farm.  They  were  the  best  blood  of  the  farm. 
True  they  were  seeking  the  '* better  opportunity,*' 
a  worthy  ambition  to  which  every  one  should 
aspire,  but  they  should  have  been  made  to  see  the 
vision  of  the  ** better  opportunity''  on  the  farm. 

The  great  majority  of  professional,  business 
and  workingmen  of  our  cities  were  poured  into 
our  cities  by  this  ceaseless  stream  flowing  from 

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HINDRANCES  47 

our  farms.  It  has  resulted  in  an  over  supply  of 
men  for  the  various  businesses,  trades,  profes- 
sions, common  labor,  and  the  founding  of  all  man- 
ner of  devices  and  schemes  for  the  eking  out  of 
an  existence  with  all  their  attending  crimes  and 
evils.  It  has  given  us  the  excess  of  middlemen 
and  thus  presented  one  of  the  alleged  problems 
and  hindrances  to  the  business  of  farming.  An 
ample  supply  of  middlemen  is  a  necessity  and  a 
benefit  to  the  business  of  farming;  but  an  over 
supply  leads  to  the  practice  of  dishonest  tricks 
of  trade,  resorted  to  by  so  many  of  the  commission 
men  whose  ranks  are  so  over  crowded  that  some 
of  their  number  must  resort  to  dishonesty  in  or- 
der to  live. 

We  hear  it  said  so  often  that  **the  time  has 
come  in  this  land  of  ours  when  more  men  must 
be  producers  and  fewer  live  on  the  work  of  those 
who  do  produce.''  This  is  good  philosophy,  but 
what  would  happen  if  all  men  were  producers'? 
From  whence  would  we  secure  the  people  to  con- 
sume our  products?  What  we  most  need  is  the 
removal  of  the  barriers  thrown  between  the  pro- 
ducer and  the  consumer — the  barrier  of  exces- 
sive freight,  the  exacting,  dishonest  commission 
men,  wholesaler,  and  retailer.  And  we  need  the 
betterment  of  labor  conditions  so  that  the  labor- 
ing men  of  our  cities  may  receive  a  living  wage, 
for  he  is  the  great  consumer  of  farm  products. 
So  when  you  put  these  farm  products  at  his  door 
and  at  the  right  price,  and  he  is  receiving  ample 
wages,  he  will  purchase  them  in  such  quantities 
that  the  farm  will  have  to  hump  itself  to  produce 
them.    Our  produce  will  command  the  price  that 


48         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

pays  the  profit,  and  farm  conditions  will  be  so 
improved  that  more  men  will  go  into  the  business 
of  farming,  and  the  congestion  of  workers  in  our 
cities  will  be  relieved. 

The  author  does  not  believe  it  possible  or  prac- 
ticable to  entirely  eliminate  the  middlemen  stand- 
ing between  the  farmer  and  the  consumer.  Like 
every  question  it  has  its  two  sides.  The  middle- 
men have  done  a  great  work  for  our  country. 
Stop  and  consider  their  achievements.  They 
have  built  our  cities  with  their  massive  business 
blocks,  hotels,  churches,  school  buildings,  li- 
braries, universities,  colleges  and  beautiful  resi- 
dences. They  have  erected,  put,  and  kept  in 
operation  our  manufacturing  plants,  that  have 
led  to  the  invention  and  manufacture  of  those 
splendid,  wonderful  and  varied  machines,  devices, 
goods,  wares,  and  merchandise  that  have  light- 
ened toil,  lessened  labor,  and  contributed  to  our 
enjoyment  in  a  thousand  ways,  and  that  have 
cheapened  the  necessities  of  life,  and  have  given 
us  opportunities  of  living  never  enjoyed  by  any 
age  of  the  world's  history. 

They  have  furnished  the  money  to  build  our 
railroads,  steam  ships,  and  canals.  They  have 
established  banks  that  have  furnished  much  of 
the  capital  to  carry  on  farm  operations. 

They  have  almost  universally  contributed  *  the 
capital  by  which  have  been  made  possible  our 
church  organizations  that  have  carried  on  and 
promulgated  the  religion  of  the  Christ,  the  very 
foundation  of  good  society,  and  the  erection  and 
maintaining  of  the  hospitals  where  the  diseases 
and  frailties  of  man  have  been  cured  and  cor- 


HINDRANCES  49 

rected,  sending  joy,  happiness  and  good  cheer  to 
the  afflicted  and  distressed. 

You  can  scarcely  lay  your  finger  upon  a  single 
enterprise  of  any  kind  or  character  in  any  com- 
munity, but  what  has  been  promoted  by  the  so- 
called  middleman,  and  pushed  to  completion,  or 
continued  in  operation  by  his  money,  his  brains, 
and  enterprise.  Entirely  to  eliminate  him  from 
our  business  economy  is  but  the  fancied  dream 
of  the  scheming  politician,  promulgated  to  keep 
him  in  power.  The  thoughtful  man  knows  that 
the  sensible  thing  to  do  is  to  eliminate  the  evils 
that  have  crept  into  the  middle  class,  and 
promulgate  the  things  that  will  so  bring  to- 
gether the  producer,  the  middleman  and  the 
consumer,  that  the  producer  and  the  middleman 
can  live  and  prosper,  and  the  consumer  will  pur- 
chase his  products  that  will  eliminate  the  high 
cost  of  living  and  put  us  all  upon  the  plane  of 
better  living. 

That  there  are  too  many  middlemen  there  is  no 
question.  Fifty  years  ago  twelve  out  of  every 
fifteen  people  in  the  United  States  engaged  in 
agriculture.  Now,  out  of  every  four  of  our  popu- 
lation, three  are  living  in  the  city  and  are  not 
producers.  Yet  if  you  will  take  a  census  of  the 
so-called  middlemen  it  will  show  just  as  we  have 
already  stated  that  they  were  mainly  recruited 
from  the  ranks  of  the  producers  or  from  the  farm, 
and  the  very  reason  they  joined  the  ranks  of  the 
middle  class  was  that  Hhey  were  seeking  to  better 
their  condition.  If  those  things  had  been  done 
that  would  have  made  farm  life  more  profitable 
and    better,    and    improved    the    opportunities 


50         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

of  the  farm,  they  never  would  have  left  the 
farm. 

When  soil  building  and  fertility  maintenance, 
and  methods  of  better  living  are  emphasized  upon 
the  farm,  more  people  will  remain  upon,  or  go 
back  to  the  farm.  It  is  our  natural  instinct  to 
live  in  agreeable  and  social  surroundings,  and  if 
we  do  not  find  these  things  in  one  place  we  seek 
for  them  in  another. 

Man  likes  to  engage  in  the  business  that  is  con- 
genial to  his  tastes,  if  it  pays.  Some  men  will 
engage  in  the  most  miserable  and  soul  destroy- 
ing business  simply  because  there  is  money  to  be 
made  in  it,  but  the  majority  prefer  an  honorable 
business. 

The  business  of  farming  is  conceded  to  be  the 
most  independent  business  on  earth,  and  it  can 
be  made  the  most  enjoyable  business,  and  a  profit- 
able business.  That  it  has  been  a  business  of 
drudgery  full  of  hard  work  there  is  no  question, 
but  the  wonderful  changes  in  farm  machinery  and 
appliances  for  comfort,  and  work  relieving  de- 
vices, have  made  it  become  a  business  no  more 
irksome  than  any  other  business,  and  it  can,  in 
fact,  be  made  as  easy  as  any  business.  When  the 
author  says  these  things  he  is  not  writing  theory, 
he  is  writing  knowledge  gained  from  practice. 
He  worked  at  farm  labor  when  the  hours  were 
long  and  the  farm  work  was  done  chiefly  by 
brawn,  with  no  improved  farm  machinery  to  help. 

He  has  stood  behind  the  counter  in  the  city 
store  from  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  until  ten 
o'clock  at  night,  with  but  the  short  cessation  of 
going  to  meals,  waiting  on  scores  of  exacting,  irri- 


HINDEANCES  51 

table  customers,  until  he  was  tired  iiirbody  and  in 
mind.  He  has  toiled  from  ten  to  twelve  hours  a 
day  at  the  stone  and  brick  mason  trade.  He 
practiced  law  for  more  than  a  score  of  years,  with 
a  large  clientage,  and  did  office  work,  and  tried 
law  suits  until  his  body  was  so  tired  and  brain  so 
jaded  that  he  could  scarcely  sleep. 

He  has  managed  and  carried  on  a  manufactur- 
ing business  with  its  perplexing  and  harassing 
problems,  annoyances  and  drawbacks,  and  he 
knows  much  of  the  modern  methods  of  farming. 

To  remove  many  of  the  hindrances  to  the  busi- 
ness of  farming  those  engaged  in  it  must  develop 
the  social  side  of  the  farmer's  life.  At  present 
it  is  the  least  developed.  The  cooperative  or- 
ganizations among  the  farmers  along  the  lines 
that  will  draw  them  together  so  that  they  may 
discuss  the  problems  pertaining  to  their  business 
should  be  encouraged.  Every  other  business 
has  similar  organizations  which  not  only  pro- 
mote better  business,  but  also  develop  the  social 
side  and  thus  provide  the  recreation  that  every 
one  needs,  and  which  helps  so  much  to  make 
smooth  the  rough  places  of  life's  pathway. 
When  the  social  side  of  the  business  of  farming 
has  been  so  developed  that  every  farm  community 
will  be  supplied  with  those  organizations  that 
give  to  every  one  engaged  in  the  business  the 
opportunity  to  secure  better  farm  methods  and 
better  farm  living,  then  the  stream  of  humanity 
flowing  from  country  to  city  will  be  stayed. 

There  is  a  farmers'  society  which  assails  the 
movement  to  increase  crop  yields  upon  the  ground 
that  large  crop  yields  will  injure  instead  of  bene- 


52         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

fit  the  farmer,  unless  marketing  conditions  are 
improved.  It  even  asserts  that  the  movement  of 
better  farming  is  backed  by  produce  exchanges 
and  boards  of  trade  who  are  old  enemies  of  the 
farmer  with  new  faces,  because  they  are  operating 
through  the  agricultural  colleges,  and  who  are 
seeking  by  improved  methods  of  farming  to  have 
produced  an  over-supply  of  farm  products  so  that 
they  may  buy  it  at  low  prices  and  sell  at  high 
prices. 

In  fine,  this  society  would  have  every  farmer  to 
install  upon  his  farm  those  methods  which  produce 
worn  and  worn-out  soils  and  so  limit  the  produc- 
tion of  farm  produce.  In  other  words,  the  mem- 
bers of  this  society  would  have  our  agricultural 
economy  augmented  with  worn,  worn-out  and 
abandoned  soils,  and  with  discouraged,  unambi- 
tious farmers,  as  a  means  of  enhancing  the  prices 
of  the  small,  inferior  amount  of  produce,  that 
would  result  if  such  a  condition  should  obtain 
upon  our  soils. 

Surely  in  this  age  when  a  multiplicity  of  brain- 
storm reforms  are  sweeping  over  our  land  like 
cyclones,  it  behooveth  the  American  farmer  to 
keep  close  to  shelter. 

The  author  asserts  without  fear  of  successful 
contradiction  that  no  matter  how  extensively  better 
farm  methods  may  be  installed  upon  our  farms, 
the  time  is  not  in  sight  when  the  staple  lines  of 
farm  produce  like  wheat,  com,  oats,  rye,  hay,  etc., 
and  live  stock,  are  likely  to  be  produced  in  such 
quantity  that  they  will  not  sell  from  the  farm  at 
a  profit. 

This  condition  may  obtain  with  fruits  and  veg- 


HINDRANCES  53 

etables  unless  barriers  of  transportation  and 
marketing  be  removed,  but  with  those  hindrances 
brushed  away  there  is  a  market  for  all  the  fruits 
and  vegetables  produced  upon  our  farms  at  prices 
that  compensate  the  grower. 

In  the  matter  of  the  buying  of  goods,  there  is 
a  hindrance  to  the  business  of  farming  worthy  of 
a  most  serious  consideration. 

The  author  does  not  question  the  right  of  any 
farmer  to  buy  goods  in  the  cheapest  market,  but 
he  does  deplore  the  fact  that  so  many  farmers  pur- 
chase so  much  of  their  groceries,  furniture  and 
other  necessities,  through  the  mail  order  houses. 
We  should  not  forget  that  it  is  the  home  merchant 
that  purchases  much,  if  not  all,  of  our  produce,  and 
bears  the  greater  burden  of  taxation  which  gives 
us  the  protection  of  society  and  better  highways ; 
in  fine,  every  improvement  that  benefits  the 
farmer.  He  builds  our  cities  and  gives  us  the 
markets  that  enhance  the  value  of  our  lands,  and 
in  many  instances  gives  us  the  accommodation  of 
credit.  And  to  forget  him,  and  not  to  purchase 
his  wares,  especially  when  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten, 
he  gives  us  better  goods  at  the  same  prices  charged 
by  the  mail  order  houses,  is  ingratitude,  and  in- 
gratitude is  the  basest  of  sins. 

As  members  of  society  we  must  ^  *  give  and  take. '  * 
We  give  up  certain  of  our  liberties  that  the  re- 
mainder may  be  the  better  protected.  Our  very 
natures  are  such  that  we  must  ever  have  the  re- 
straining hand  of  law  over  us.  This  makes  nec- 
essary the  existence  of  a  government,  and  this 
government  must  extend  to  every  community,  and 
under  our  system  has  resulted  in  a  state  of  exist- 


54         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

ence  unequaled  by  any  in  the  world.  We  have 
prospered  mightily  and  the  business  of  farming 
has  been  given  an  opportunity  that  has  pushed 
this  country  to  its  present  position.  To  make 
any  country  prosperous  and  great  it  must  be  com- 
posed of  many  small,  well  regulated,  prosperous 
communities,  units  or  parts,  and  each  citizen 
composing  these  parts  must  have  at  heart  every 
feature  of  the  community  in  which  he  lives,  for 
the  prosperity  of  the  people  and  their  business, 
the  churches,  the  schools,  the  betterment  of  the 
roads  and  the  highways,  contribute  to  his  pros- 
perity and  the  promotion  of  his  happiness. 

If  every  citizen  would  take  no  interest  in  home 
affairs  and  would  buy  all  his  wares  and  merchan- 
dise through  the  mail  order  houses,  what  kind  of 
a  community  would  his  community  be  ?  The  mail 
order  house  contributes  nothing  to,  nor  cares  any- 
thing for,  your  community.  Its  sole  care  is  that 
it  may  get  your  dollar. 

To-day,  and  in  the  past,  the  so-called  middleman 
has  not  only  furnished  the  money  for  the  chari- 
table institutions,  hospitals,  etc.,  but  the  money  that 
has  led  up  to  better  farm  methods.  The  farmer 
has  only  contributed  when  forced  to  by  taxation. 
The  middleman  has  led.  Before  you  shake  him 
down,  consider  these  things ;  if  he  has  grown  'ar- 
rogant, there  is  a  way  to  reach  him,  but  give  him 
due  credit  for  the  things  he  has  done. 

In  these  days  we  are  hearing  much  about  co- 
operation among  farmers  by  which  they  may  ob- 
tain better  prices  for  their  grain,  their  stock,  and 
their  various  farm  products;  that  we  should 
have  those  farm  societies  whose  object  is  to  make 


HmDEANCES  55 

farmers  fix  the  minimum  price  for  his  pro- 
duce. 

It  is  a  sin  and  a  shame  to  see  thousands  of  bush- 
els of  apples  lie  rotting  upon  the  ground,  as  the 
author  has  seen  them  this  year  in  the  Middle  West 
for  want  of  a  market,  when  so  many  thousands 
in  our  cities  can  not  obtain  them  at  a  price  which 
they  can  afford  to  pay.  And  this  very  thing  hap- 
pens every  year  with  some  line  of  vegetable  or 
fruit.  The  fault  lies  in  the  methods  of  distribu- 
tion and  marketing, — chiefly  in  the  marketing. 
Commission  men,  looking  of  course  solely  to  their 
own  interests,  are  adverse  to  an  over  supply  of 
any  one  vegetable  or  fruit,  so  they  maintain  prices, 
and  take  steps  to  prevent  produce  from  reaching 
the  market  in  quantities.  Much  of  this  evil  can 
be  eliminated  by  the  establishment  of  markets 
in  all  of  our  cities  of  any  considerable  size,  under 
the  management  and  control  of  city  authorities. 
Cities  assume  jurisdiction  over  gas,  light  and 
water  companies,  and  the  management  and  control 
of  those  things  that  maintain  health  and  relieve 
disease  and  distress,  and  why  not  assume  juris- 
diction and  control  over  those  methods  and  devices 
which  will  lead  to  a  better  distribution  and  market- 
ing of  food  supplies  by  which  all  the  people  of  our 
cities  may  obtain  food  in  ample  amounts  and  at 
a  reasonable  price?  If  such  were  done  then  when 
there  was  a  plethora  of  farm  products,  waste 
would  be  eliminated,  our  people  would  have  the 
opportunity  to  be  fed  with  food  at  reasonable 
prices,  and  high  prices  would  only  prevail  in  cases 
of  a  failure  or  partial  failure  of  crops. 

I  do  not  believe  that  cooperative  grain  com- 


56         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

panies,  creameries,  canning  companies  or  any 
company  composed  of  farmers  for  the  better  mar- 
keting of  farm  products,  will  ever  soive  tlie  ques- 
tion of  the  better  marketing  of  farm  products  and 
the  obtaining  of  better  prices. 

After  all,  these  companies  are  nothing  more 
than  the  simple  changing  or  shifting  of  middle- 
men. It  requires  the  same  number  of  men,  pos- 
sessing the  requisite  skill  to  manage  and  carry  on 
the  cooperative  enterprises,  as  it  does  to  manage 
and  carry  on  the  non-cooperative  enterprises. 
Therefore  you  must  either  employ  the  man- 
agers and  employes  to  operate  these  coopera- 
tive concerns  from  the  ranks  of  the  non-co- 
operative concerns,  or  take  them  from  the  ranks 
of  the  farmers,  and  when  you  take  them  from 
the  ranks  of  the  farmers  you  eliminate  that 
many  men  from  the  business  of  farming,  and  the 
business  of  farming  suffers  to  that  extent,  and 
you  put  these  farmers  into  a  business  for  which 
they  have  no  training  or  adaptation,  and  too  often 
they  do  not  make  good,  and  the  cooperative  con- 
cerns fail.  The  highways  of  the  business  world 
are  to-day  strewn  with  the  wrecks  of  these  co- 
operative concerns.  Some  have  made  good,  but 
the  author  is  sure  the  majority  have  not.  Every 
man  to  his  business  and  every  man  to  his  trade, 
is  absolutely  necessary  for  the  greater  success. 
But  after  all,  the  cooperative  concerns  must  sell 
their  products  to  non-cooperative  concerns,  so 
they  do  not  enhance  profits,  but  simply  divide 
the  profits  of  their  business  among  their  stock- 
holders. 

But  assuming  that  the  cooperative  concerns  are 


HINDRANCES  57 

a  success,  you  simply  cliange  the  class  of  middle- 
men and  cause  a  different  distribution  of  tlie  prof- 
its. But  if  they  succeed  in  appreciating  prices 
of  farm  products,  to  any  great  extent,  would  they 
not  be  combinations  to  boost  prices,  just  as  much 
as  the  great  trusts  organized  for  the  boosting  of 
prices,  and  therefore,  be  unlawful? 

Within  the  last  twenty  years  the  author  has 
seen  the  rich  lands  of  the  com  belt,  now  valued 
at  $200  per  acre,  begging  for  buyers  at  $35  or 
$40  per  acre.  Com  was  selling  for  15  cents  per 
bushel  and  other  farm  products  in  like  propor- 
tion. In  those  days  no  cooperative  movement  on 
earth  was  powerful  enough  to  bring  about  condi- 
tions that  would  enhance  the  prices,  for  there  was 
a  plethora  of  farm  products  and  not  enough  con- 
sumers to  consume  them.  When  consumption 
caught  up  with  production,  then  farm  products 
began  to  enhance  and  prices  of  lands  increase. 

The  Medesian  law  of  supply  and  demand  will 
ever  govern  the  price  of  commodities.  If  low 
prices  prevail,  the  remedy  is  more  consumers  and 
better  facilities  for  the  better  and  cheaper  trans- 
portation of  products  to  the  consumer,  or  the  or- 
ganization which  has  for  its  purpose  the  storage 
and  withholding  from  the  market  of  products  until 
prices  adjust  themselves  to  a  higher  level  or  the 
market  is  bare  of  products,  which  will  cause  ap- 
preciation. 

But  after  all  are  we  not  natural  born  kickers? 
We  seem  to  overlook  the  unalterable  laws  of  busi- 
ness and  trade.  That  in  the  business  world  as 
well  as  in  the  moral  and  natural  world  **  periods 
of  energy  and  faith  are  succeeded  by  ages  of  doubt 


58         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

and  sloth."  That  periods  of  high  prices  are  suc- 
ceeded by  periods  of  low  prices.  That  if  we  eat 
to  surfeit  we  must  needs  fast.  That  if  we  over 
expand  in  business  transactions  a  period  of  con- 
traction with  its  distress  must  come.  The  stem 
law  of  compensation  obtains  in  every  transaction 
of  business  and  life.  Some  things  we  can  change 
or  reform.  Many  we  cannot.  Let  us  remove 
every  hindrance  to  the  business  of  farming  that 
can  be  removed. 

The  following  perfectly  true  account  which  can 
be  verified,  taken  from  the  New  York  World, 
shows  that  the  farmer  of  the  present  century,  with 
its  apparent  evils,  has,  after  all,  much  for  which 
to  be  thankful,  when  he  considers  his  lot  with  the 
lot  of  the  farmer  living  in  the  past  ages. 

"A  countryman  living  just  beyond  the  outskirts  of  London, 
drove  to  the  metropolis  one  day  to  order  a  few  provisions,  etc. 

"The  countryman  first  went  to  the  nearest  cobbler^s.  There 
he  bought  a  good  pair  of  shoes.  Not  shoddy  footwear,  care- 
lessly turned  out  or  even  machine  made,  but  hand-sewed  and 
of  fine,  strong  leather.  For  this  pair  of  shoes  he  paid  just 
seven  cents. 

"Next  he  drove  to  a  butcher  stall  in  Smithfield.  There  he 
bought  a  sheep,  a  dozen  chickens  and  ten  pounds  of  beef. 
For  the  sheep  he  paid  ten  cents.  For  the  chickens  he  paid 
one  and  one-half  cents  apiece,  or  eighteen  cents  for  the  dozen. 
The  ten  pounds  of  beef  cost  him  a  nickel.  For  beef  was 
half  a  cent  a  pound. 

"Stowing  away  his  purchases  in  his  big  wagon,  the  farmer 
next  stopped  at  a  fish  stall,  where  for  ten  cents  he  bought 
twenty-five  big  codfish. 

"His  visit  to  the  grain  merchant  cost  him  more.  For  he 
was  forced  to  pay  fifteen  cents  for  a  bushel  of  rye — a  sum 
out  of  all  proportion  to  his  earlier  purchases.  It  was  cheaper, 
you  see,  to  buy  meat  than  the  rye  bread  to  eat  with  it. 


HINDRANCES  59 

"But  his  ensuing  trip  to  the  draper^s  for  enough  homespun 
cloth  to  provide  him  with  a  winter  suit,  atoned  for  the  high 
price  of  the  grain  for  he  found  that  stout  homespun  cloth 
was  selling  at  twelve  cents  an  ell,  or  nine  and  three-fifths 
cents  a  yard. 

"The  farmer  had  no  trouble  in  carrying  his  wares  home  in 
his  wagon.  For  the  wagon  was  large.  He  had  driven  it  to 
London  full  of  firewood,  and  this  wagon  load  of  wood  he  had 
sold  for  thirteen  cents. 

"The  foregoing  prices  are  all  accurate.  The  high  cost  of 
living  had  not  yet  hit  England.  For,  you  see,  all  this  hap- 
pened several  years  ago. 

"In  fact,  it  was  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.^' 

There  are  abuses  in  the  marketing  of  products 
that  must  be  corrected  even  if  resort  to  coopera- 
tion that  results  in  loss,  becomes  necessary. 

For  instance,  there  are  commission  men  in 
scores  of  cities  who  solicit  consignments  of  pro- 
duce which  they  agree  to  sell  as  choice  products, 
and  at  the  highest  prices  that  can  be  obtained. 
However,  when  farmers  get  their  returns  for  pro- 
duce shipped,  language  is  used  not  conducive  either 
to  the  spread  of  religion  or  strict  belief  in  the  nat- 
ural law  of  supply  and  demand.  Produce  of  the 
choicest  quality  is  shipped  these  commission  men, 
the  returns  from  which  do  not  meet  the  cost  of 
production,  and  in  many  cases  the  shippers  are 
called  upon  to  pay  alleged  losses.  The  excuse  of 
*  *  overstocked  markets '  ^  is  made  to  cover  a  multi- 
tude of  sins  committed  by  these  commission  men. 

A  recent  investigation  in  New  York  City  re- 
vealed criminal  conditions.  The  truckers  of  Long 
Island  had  been  shipping  their  produce  to  these 
New  York  City  commission  men,"  with  not  enough 
returns  to  pay  expenses,  and  they  received  so 


60         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

many  reports  of  *' overstocked  markets''  and  other 
excuses,  that  the  worm  turned  and  struck  back. 
Investigation  disclosed  that  the  journey  of  the 
produce  from  garden  to  consumer  passed  through 
from  three  to  seven  intermediaries.  That  these 
alleged  commission  men  bought  directly  for  their 
own  account,  thus  not  only  violating  the  laws  of 
agency,  but  of  honesty  and  common  decency. 
They  went  further  into  the  filth  of  dishonesty  and 
sold  the  produce  to  fictitious  firms,  even  to  their 
own  wives  and  children.  It  was  found  that  these 
men  by  these  methods,  without  a  dollar  of  capital 
invested,  were  able  to  roll  along  the  Riverside 
Drive  in  fine  motor  cars  and  sail  up  the  Hudson  in 
luxuriously  furnished  yachts,  while  the  Long 
Island  produce  was  being  grown  by  the  producers 
at  an  actual  loss.  Do  you  wonder  then,  that  these 
Long  Island  producers,  when  they  became  wise,  de- 
vised the  **Long  Island  Home  Hamper''  scheme, 
by  which  their  produce  was  brought  to  the  kitchens 
of  the  consumer,  and  at  a  fine  profit  to  themselves, 
and  at  a  big  saving  to  the  consumer!  Mr.  Dis- 
honest Commission  Man  was  left  to  reflect  amid 
the  ashes  of  his  wrecked  illegitimate  business  upon 
the  old  time  maxim  ^^ Honesty  is  the  best  policy." 
A  similar  condition  as  to  dishonest  commission 
men  and  ruinous  prices  and  robbery  of  the  pro- 
ducer has  obtained  in  nearly  every  city  of  our  land. 
And  if  honest  commission  men  and  merchants  do 
not  quickly  take  drastic  measures  to  eliminate 
these  conditions  from  their  ranks,  and  establish 
those  methods  by  which  producers  will  obtain  for 
their  produce  the  living  price,  and  the  consumer 
can  buy  it  at  prices  that  ought  to  obtain  under 


HINDRANCES  61 

legitimate  conditions  of  supply  and  demand,  then 
their  businesses  are  doomed. 

The  perfected  parcel  post  has  opened  the  way 
to  the  consumer,  and  has  brought  him  and  the  pro- 
ducer closer  together,  and  will  eliminate  much  of 
the  evil  of  market  garden  and  fruit  products,  but 
it  comes  far  from  entirely  solving  the  marketing 
problem.  All  consumers  do  not  or  are  not  in  po- 
sition to  avail  themselves  of  its  advantages.  And 
all  consumers  and  producers  are  not  strictly  hon- 
est. The  producer  does  not  always  send  the  hon- 
est quality  filled  package,  and  the  consumer  too, 
resorts  to  dishonest  tricks.  Unless  honest  com- 
mission men  reform  their  business  and  entirely 
eliminate  the  evils  from  it,  then  the  author  believes 
that  resort  must  be  had  to  the  municipal  market. 
That  is  the  market  we  have  already  referred  to 
under  municipal  control  where  the  producer  can 
bring  and  display  his  produce  and  meet  the  con- 
sumer face  to  face,  where  they  can  market  upon 
the  true  merits  of  the  produce  and  at  honest  com- 
petition regulated  by  supply  and  demand. 

These  markets  have  been  established  in  many 
cities  the  past  year  of  1913  and  the  author  knows 
they  have  been  a  success.  Yet  he  can  see  where 
even  they  do  not  solve  all  the  farmer's  marketing 
problems.  Not  all  farmers  can  take  the  time  to  go 
to  the  city  market  and  sell  their  produce.  Other 
work  demands  his  attention  as  well.  So  after 
trying  all  the  remedies  of  parcel  post,  municipal 
markets,  etc.,  do  we  not  get  right  back  to  the  best 
system  of  all,  the  getting  closer  together  of  the 
farmer  and  his  merchant,  and  devising  methods 
by  which  the  farmer  gets  a  fair  price  for  his 


62         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

products,  the  merchant,  the  middle  man,  getting  a 
fair  share  for  his  trouble  and  expense  of  distribu- 
tion to  the  consumer,  and  yet  the  consumer  getting 
the  produce  at  a  price  that  eliminates  much  of 
the  cost  of  high  living!  Does  not  this  system,  as 
we  have  shown,  partake  of  the  *'give  and  take" 
plan  of  society,  by  which  we  each  give  up  certain 
liberties  and  privileges  that  the  remainder  may  be 
the  better  protected?  After  all  is  there  not  some 
thing  more  in  this  life  than  the  farmer,  the  middle- 
man, and  the  consumer  receiving  the  exorbitant 
profits  and  cheaper  products?  We  all  want  to 
get  the  best  out  of  life  in  the  way  of  better  homes 
and  home  equipments,  better  surroundings,  bet- 
ter highways,  better  schools  and  churches,  better 
amusements,  better  government,  yea,  the  better 
opportunity.  But  to  get  these  things  we  must 
*^give  and  take.''  If  men  and  women  will  live 
in  the  towns  and  cities  which  they  claim  give  them 
the  better  opportunities  for  the  best  living,  then 
should  they  not  pay  the  price  for  such  opportuni- 
ties ?  Let  us  remember  that  it  is  not  wealth  alone 
that  gives  the  best  and  right  living.  We  must  be 
interested  in  every  part  and  portion  of  our  com- 
munity if  we  are  going  to  get  the  best  out  of  our 
life.  It  will  never  be  possible  for  each  one  of  us 
to  withdraw  or  to  think  that  we  can  withdraw  from 
the  activities  of  our  communities,  shut  ourselves 
up  as  it  were,  and  say  we  will  have  nothing  to  do 
with  them.  We  each  must  concede  something  for 
the  betterment  of  our  communities. 

The  high  cost  of  living  cannot  entirely  be  laid 
at  the  feet  of  the  producer.  The  fault  lies  largely 
with  the  consumer.    He  has  demanded  systems 


HINDEANCES  63 

of  delivery  and  methods  of  living  never  dreamed 
of  by  his  fathers,  all  of  which  has  enhanced  the 
cost  of  his  living.  When  the  author  first  began 
married  life  in  the  city,  he  bought  his  groceries 
largely  in  bulk,  and  did  his  own  delivering.  A 
system  of  water  works,  electric  lighting,  and  other 
luxuries  could  not  be  obtained.  But  when  they 
could  be  secured  and  were  installed,  they  each 
brought  their  necessary  appurtenances,  which  in- 
creased the  cost  of  living.  Many  luxuries  we  now 
enjoy  have  seemingly  become  necessities.  They 
are  legitimate  and  make  life  more  enjoyable,  but 
add  to  the  high  cost  of  living.  And  yet  when  we 
did  not  have  them  we  perhaps  enjoyed  life  as  well 
as  we  do  now,  and  were  not  so  worried  with  the 
expense  that  now  greets  us  on  every  hand.  If 
we  must  have  all  the  advantages  of  modem  civi- 
lization we  must  expect  to  pay  for  them,  and 
should  give  these  advantages  due  consideration 
when  we  are  considering  the  problems  of  to-day 
and  how  to  solve  them. 

The  thought  has  been  expressed  that,  as  our  na- 
tion has  practically  conquered  all  her  virgin  soils 
and  subdued  them  to  cultivation,  planted  her  cities 
on  every  hill  and  plain,  established  schools,  col- 
leges and  libraries  in  every  portion  of  her  domain, 
improved  the  highways  and  mail  system  so  the 
mail  and  newspapers  are  being  brought  to  every 
home,  it  has  given  us  more  men  of  leisure,  and 
so  a  spirit  has  taken  possession  of  our  people 
which  is  leading  out  towards  the  reformation  of 
all  the  real  and  imaginary  public  and  private 
abuses  that  beset  us.  We  do  indeed  see  this  spirit 
manifested  upon  every  hand.    In  political  parties 


64         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

and  in  national,  state,  and  municipal  governments. 
It  has  plunged  our  nation  into  a  spirit  of  '^un- 
rest,'' that  has  made  us  ** reform  mad.*'  Multi- 
tudinous organizations  have  sprung  up  on  every 
hand  with  reformation  or  correcting  of  alleged 
evils  as  their  purpose,  which  have  influenced  our 
legislative  bodies  of  cities,  states  and  nation  to 
fill  to  a  surfeit  our  statute  books  with  laws  for  the 
regulation  of  everything  imaginable,  whose  ob- 
jects are  to  correct  real  and  imaginary  evils  and 
so  many  of  which  are  never  enforced. 

Many  of  these  would-be  reformative  laws  strike 
at  old  unalterable  laws  of  trade,  commerce  and 
society,  that  no  legislative  enactment  can  ever 
alter,  change  or  reform.  Yet  in  the  maddening 
desire  to  reform  something,  the  very  conditions 
that  bring  about  much  of  the  evils  of  society  are 
entirely  overlooked.  We  enact  the  laws  that  sim- 
ply lop  off  the  branches  of  the  tree  of  evil  instead 
of  the  law  that  will  strike  at  its  root  so  as  to  de- 
stroy the  tree  itself. 

It  is  universally  admitted  that  the  liquor  traffic 
is  the  source  of  nearly  all  crime,  poverty  and  im- 
purity, costing  our  nation  incomputable  sums  of 
money  to  pay  for  its  destruction  and  devastation, 
yet  when  we  strike  at  this  monstrous  tree  of  evil 
we  lop  otf  a  branch  here  and  there  with  a  state 
prohibitive,  local  option,  or  regulative  license 
trimmer,  which  may  mar  the  shape  of  the  tree, 
but  the  tree  lives  on  and  seems  none  the  worse 
for  the  trimming.  Is  it  not  time  we  strike  at  the 
tree's  root  with  one  single  nation  wide  prohibi- 
tion against  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicat- 
ing liquors,  and  at  one  blow  eliminate  a  multitude 


HINDRANCES  65 

of  evils  responsible  for  the  numerous  conditions 
against  which  we  have  been  so  long,  and  against 
which  we  are  now  directing  so  great  a  body  of  re- 
form measures? 

The  evolution  of  modern  businesses,  the  natural 
result  of  changed  conditions  of  society,  has  thrown 
us  into  a  reformatory  fit  and  so  much  energy  of 
speech,  writing  and  legislative  enactments,  has 
been  directed  against  the  concentration  of  capital 
into  great  business  combinations,  which  have 
actually  brought  about  better  business  methods  of 
manufacturing  and  transportation  by  which  man- 
ufactured products  have  been  cheapened  one-half 
or  more,  and  scores  of  men  have  been  given  em- 
ployment, and  better  conditions,  both  as  to  prices 
and  employment,  have  been  obtained  that  never 
could  have  been  secured  by  the  individual  acting 
alone.  Yet  these  combinations  of  capital  which 
have  brought  these  bettered  conditions  and  ad- 
vantages to  the  people,  have  been  denounced  and 
legislated  against  as  the  most  monstrous  of  evils 
that  should  not  be  allowed  to  exist,  even  under  pro- 
per regulation.  And  writers  and  speakers  who  see 
both  the  good  and  the  evils  in  these  combinations 
of  capital,  and  know  that  the  proper  thing  is  to 
regulate  the  evil  out  of  them  and  encourage  the 
good  in  them,  are  cowed  and  become  afraid  to  ex- 
press their  honest  thoughts  and  convictions  re- 
garding them. 


CHAPTER  IV 

OUR  WORN  SOILS  THE  GREATEST  MENACE  TO  THE 

BUSINESS  OF  FARMING  AND  HOW  TO 

RESTORE   THEM 

THE  menace  of  worn  soils,  the  farm's  most 
serious  problem,  deserves  further  comment 
in  a  special  chapter,  notwithstanding  we  have  al- 
ready said  much  about  it  and  other  menaces  to 
the  business  of  farming. 

We  have  shown  how  the  **whip  and  spur" 
method  of  farming  so  long  practiced  in  the  United 
States,  by  which  our  soils  have  been  subjected  to 
the  process  of  getting  all  you  can  out  of  them  with- 
out the  return  of  anything  to  maintain  or  increase 
fertility,  has  so  exhausted  vast  areas  of  our  soils 
that  they  no  longer  produce  paying  crops.  Any 
soil  that  will  not  produce  crops  that  more  than 
pay  for  the  cost  of  production,  is  a  worn-out  soil, 
and  we  must  not  be  blind  to  the  fact  that  they  exist 
even  to  alarming  proportions  in  every  part  and 
portion  of  our  country,  yea,  in  those  portions  that 
boast  of  their  rich  soils. 

We  have  shown  that  a  greedy  husbandry,  a 
sordid  tillage,  lack  of  capital,  deceptive  theories 
like  crop  rotation,  etc.,  have  been  producers  of 
worn  and  worn-out  soils. 

There  are  scores  of  farms  in  the  abandoned 
farm  districts  of  the  East,  a  humid  region  where 

66 


O    cS    (U    _ 

-^  -M    t«    tr;    o 
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O  a>   v„  y::  .„ 


<u 


-Hi 


03 


?;  TO  ^ 


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«^  (u  ^,       ;3 
u   ij  '^ 
be 


i^*-^      -^  ^  £ 

H      c.   ^'•ti   ^  ^   O 

£    27  o  Safe 
fc   ^c  2  ^  ^  <y  1^ 

•53  2-^  ^^ 

'+-'  o  O  2:i  rl 
o  "^  o  O.^  "5 
^  •  ti  ^  ^  i-^  oj 

t«    03    OJ  ^    <N^ 

a;  tJ  c  "^^  3 
ys  03  .S  H.   V 


QUE  WORN  SOILS  67 

the  rainfall  is  sufficient  to  insure  perfect  crop 
growth,  capable  of  producing  enough  to  feed  mil- 
lions of  people  that  now  lie  like  fallow  soil,  grow- 
ing back  into  a  wilderness  as  dense  as  the  wilder- 
ness from  which  they  were  rescued  centuries  ago. 
These  fanns  are  set  in  landscapes  beautiful  be- 
yond comparison,  interspersed  by  perfect  roads, 
watered  by  springs  and  streams  of  never  failing 
sparkling  pure  water,  much  of  which  can  be  har- 
nessed by  dams  and  made  to  move  the  wheels  that 
will  manufacture  the  electricity  to  light  the  homes, 
barns,  and  move  the  many  machines  now  manu- 
factured for  the  farmer's  use. 

Why  has  the  desolation  of  abandonment  spread 
its  solemn  mantle  over  this  splendid  region,  once 
busy  with  toiling,  yet  happy,  prosperous  people, 
owners  of  delightful  homes  surrounded  by  glo- 
rious church  and  educational  privileges? 

The  lure  of  the  West  and  of  the  city  threw  its 
spell  around  its  young  people.  They  wandered 
from  the  old  homestead.  The  God  fearing  and 
peace  loving  father  and  mother  sat  empty  hearted, 
desolate  and  distressed  around  the  hearthstone, 
stared  with  aching  eyes  and  broken  hearts  into 
the  vacant  chairs ;  sorrowed  away  their  lives,  died 
and  were  laid  to  rest  in  the  country  churchyard, 
and  no  one  was  left  to  care  for  the  old  farm,  for 
the  young  people  who  had  left  the  old  homes  were 
yet  beneath  the  influence  of  the  spell  that  led  them 
away,  or  were  bowed  down  by  circumstances  that 
would  not  allow  them  to  come  back  to  their  child- 
hood's home.  So  these  farms  became  tenantless, 
the  hand  of  abandonment  fell  upon  them. 

Yet  there  was  an  underlying  cause  for  this  state 


68         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

of  affairs  that  we  all  overlook,  and  it  is  the  great 
American  farm  tragedy.  If  these  farms  had  been 
producing  the  wealth  that  prosperous  farms 
should  produce,  would  all  the  younger  generation 
have  deserted  them?  Surely  some  would  have 
remained  behind  to  share  and  enjoy  them.  If  we 
but  search  to  the  bottom  of  the  whole  matter  we 
will  find  that  these  farms  had  been  farmed  for 
years  under  a  system  of  farm  procedure  that  made 
their  fields  sterile  and  barren.  So  long  as  they 
produced  large  crops  they  prospered  their  owners. 
Fine  farm  buildings  were  erected  and  homes  with 
the  comforts  of  life  abounded,  but  as  these  soils 
became  worn,  crop  production  lessened,  the  spell 
cast  by  worn  and  worn-out  soil  spread  its  blight- 
ing influences  throughout  fields,  valleys  and  home- 
steads, and  the  inhabitants  thereof,  especially  the 
younger  generations,  fell  easy  victims  to  the  lure 
of  the  city  or  of  the  West. 

'Tis  true  that  the  lure  of  the  city  and  of  the 
West  have  ever  been  some  of  the  world's  greatest 
tragedies.  Men  and  women  have  come  under  their 
seeming  benign  influence  ever  since  cities  were 
builded  and  the  'course  of  empires  westward  took 
their  way, '  and  will  continue  as  long  as  cities  exist, 
and  until  all  the  soils  of  the  globe  have  been  con- 
quered and  subdued  to  man's  service.  And  the 
world  will  never  know  the  heart  aches  suffered 
around  the  firesides  of  the  homes  they  have 
desolated  of  their  young  manhood  and  woman- 
hood. 

But  we  do  not  believe  the  lure  of  the  city  and 
of  the  West  will  cast  so  great  a  spell  about  our 
people  if  conditions  obtain  that  will  dispel  the 


OUR  WORN  SOILS  69 

curse  of  worn-out  soils,  and  bring  the  soil  back  to 
where  it  will  cheerfully  take  up  again  its  burden 
of  bearing  crops  that  pay  the  profit,  for  when  this 
is  done  possibilities  of  better  farm  living  are  made 
possible  in  every  part  and  portion  of  our  land, 
and  the  advantage  of  farm  living  will  more  than 
equal  those  of  city  living  or  elsewhere. 

But  the  worn  soil  problem  confronts  us  and  we 
can  not  get  away  from  it.  Can  these  soils  be  re- 
stored? If  so,  how!  The  plan  adopted  for  their 
restoration  must  be  one  of  quick  action,  for  we 
can  not  wait  fifty  years  as  England  did  to  restore 
our  worn-out  soils. 

A  fertile  soil,  or  one  that  will  produce  paying 
crops,  is  composed  of  certain  minerals,  plenty  of 
organic  matter,  humus,  soil  bacteria,  and  is  well 
ventilated. 

As  a  general  rule  the  soil  stratum  of  most  all 
our  soils  has  in  it  the  necessary  minerals,  like 
potash,  etc.,  to  supply  the  needs  of  plant  growth 
for  centuries.  All  virgin  soils  abound  in  all 
the  other  elements  that  make  up  a  fertile  soil, 
but  when  virgin  soils  are  brought  under  cultiva- 
tion and  are  subjected  to  years  of  tillage  that  has 
no  thought  of  soil  conservation,  the  elements  of 
organic  matter,  humus,  and  nitrogen,  become  ex- 
hausted, these  soils  are  no  longer  a  favorable  home 
for  soil  bacteria,  they  become  cold  and  compact, 
ventilation  is  shut  off,  and  they  pass  into  the  class 
of  worn-out  soils. 

The  element  soonest  farmed  out  of  fertile  soils 
is  nitrogen.  This  element  is  considered  the  ^  ^most 
precious,  the  most  important  and  the  most  costly '' 
of  all  the  soil  elements.    Virgin  soil  procured  its 


70         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

supply  of  nitrogen  from  decaying  vegetation  or 
organic  matter,  and  from  the  air  through  the  work 
of  those  soil  bacteria,  which  make  their  homes  in 
the  root  nodules  of  those  plants  known  as  the  ni- 
trogen gathering  plants  or  the  legumes,  and  who 
draw  for  their  food  the  nitrogen  from  the  air, 
and  drawing  more  than  they  need,  store  the  sur- 
plus in  the  soil  where  it  becomes  available  for 
plant  food. 

Worn-out  soils  are  always  deficient  in  ventila- 
tion, organic  matter,  nitrogen,  humus  and  soil 
bacteria. 

Soils  must  be  ventilated  so  that  bacteria  may 
live  in  them  and  that  oxygen  may  reach  the  plant 
roots,  for  we  have  stated  that  it  is  as  necessary 
for  plant  roots  to  breathe  as  human  or  animal 
beings. 

If  we  would  but  reflect  and  investigate  we  will 
find  that  in  human,  animal,  insect  and  vegetable 
life,  and  even  in  inanimate  substances,  the  great- 
est law  is  the  law  of  service.  Men  and  women 
make  their  lives  one  of  service  for  their  families 
and  fellowmen.  In  the  animal  world  one  animal 
gives  up  its  life  that  man  or  another  animal  may 
live.  One  insect  is  made  to  serve  as  food  for  an- 
other. The  plant  grows  in  the  soil  and  with  its 
roots  caresses  the  rock  particles  of  the  soil  stored 
with  mineral  plant  food,  and  coaxes  from  them 
the  mineral  wealth  which  it  utilizes  for  its  food, 
lives  its  life,  dies,  and  gives  its  body  back  to  the 
soil  to  decay  and  become  the  food  of  soil  bacteria 
whose  mission  is  to  compound  the  decaying  body 
of  the  plant  into  plant  food  and  humus  for  future 
plant  growth.    All  have  been  lives  of  service,  and 


OUE  WORN  SOILS  71 

without    this    law    of  service   neither    can    live. 

The  soil  is  bound  by  the  same  law  of  service  and 
gives  up  its  life  elements  that  plants  may  live  and 
grow  and  bear  their  burden  of  harvest  that  they 
too  may  render  service  to  man.  But  soil  can  not 
live  and  render  service  unless  service  has  been 
rendered  unto  it  by  plants  and  other  fertilizing 
agencies,  so  that  it  may  gather  the  fertility  that 
it  gives  back  in  service. 

So  in  the  restoration  of  worn  soils  we  must  sim- 
ply study  the  law  of  service  and  compensation,  and 
when  we  do  this  we  find  that  soils  must  have  or- 
ganic matter  in  them  to  furnish  food  for  soil  bac- 
teria, so  that  the  bacteria  may  compound  and  dis- 
tribute the  substances  needed  for  plant  food,  and 
cleanse  the  soil  of  its  offensive  accumulations. 
And  soils  must  have  in  them  the  nitrogen  to  pro- 
mote the  growth  of  plants  and  the  soil  ventilation 
which  is  secured  by  drainage,  and  by  incorporat- 
ing into  it  large  quantities  of  organic  matter. 
Organic  matter  is  put  into  the  soil  for  its  use  by 
plowing  under  of  manure,  cornstalks,  straw  or 
any  green  manuring  crop,  or  vegetable,  or  plant 
residue. 

We  have  already  showed  that  the  first  aid  to 
the  restoration  of  worn-out  soils  is  through  drain- 
age— drainage  constructed  with  the  thought  of 
soils  ventilation,  and  that  the  next  aid  is  the  secur- 
ing for  it  an  abundance  of  organic  matter.  Ma- 
nure is  considered  by  many  the  best  organic  mat- 
ter, but  as  it  cannot  generally  be  secured  in  suf- 
ficient quantities,  we  must  look  to  other  sources 
for  supplies. 

The  next  best  source  of  securing  a  supply  of 


72         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

organic  matter  is  the  growing  of  crops  like  red  and 
sweet  clover,  alfalfa,  vetch,  rye,  hungarian,  buck- 
wheat, etc.  Clover  and  alfalfa  cannot  generally 
be  grown  on  worn-out  soils  without  the  use  of 
some  stimulant  like  nitrate  of  soda,  limestone, 
etc.,  to  give  them  a  start.  If  by  the  use  of  a 
stimulant  we  can  get  a  stand  of  clover  and  al- 
falfa and  plow  under  the  entire  clover  crop  and 
allow  the  alfalfa  to  stand  for  several  years,  cutting 
it  in  its  proper  season,  we  will  have  secured  a 
valuable  supply  of  organic  matter  and  nitrogen 
for  worn-out  soils. 

By  far  the  best  crops  for  furnishing  organic 
matter  for  worn-out  soils  are  the  vetches,  sand, 
winter,  or  hairy  vetch,  sweet  clover  and  rye. 
These  crops  do  not  require  any  stimulant  to  make 
them  take  hold  upon  our  worn-out  soils  and  they 
quickly  furnish  large  quantities  of  organic  mat- 
ter. 

For  years  we  have  been  preaching  and  practic- 
ing the  religion  of  an  abundance  of  organic  mat- 
ter for  all  our  soils,  whether  fertile,  worn,  worn- 
out  or  abandoned.  We  have  not  only  preached 
and  practiced  this  faith,  but  have  dreamed  about 
it,  and  our  dreams  have  been  that  the  feeding  of 
our  soils  an  abundance  of  organic  matter  will 
make  more  fertile  our  fertile  soils,  and  will  so  re- 
store to  fertility  our  worn,  worn-out  and  aban- 
doned soils,  that  we  will  again  be  a  nation  possess- 
ing the  fertile  soils  we  possessed  when  our  conti- 
nent was  first  discovered. 

The  a,  b,  c  of  a  permanent  agriculture  is  a  soil 
filled  with  organic  matter,  for  organic  matter  was 
tlie  a,  b,  c  of  soil  building.    With  it  Nature  fash- 


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OUR  WORN  SOILS  73 

ioned  and  framed  the  soil  into  its  fertile  stage 
and  fitted  it  for  the  service  of  the  husbandman. 

After  Nature  had  broken  up  and  spread  over 
the  earth's  surface  the  rock  particles  found  in  our 
soils,  in  the  course  of  time  she  filled  these  rock 
particles  with  all  kinds  of  growing  vegetation. 
Much  of  this  vegetation  through  their  root  nodules 
and  soil  bacteria  drew  from  the  air  into  the  soil 
for  its  use  the  soiPs  most  precious  element,  nitro- 
gen. And  even  in  this  day  when  the  husbandman 
strips  the  soil  of  its  fertility  under  the  lash  of 
continuous  crop  growing,  and  without  manural 
compensation,  until  it  refuses  longer  to  be  driven 
and  it  is  abandoned  by  its  heartless  owner,  Na- 
ture, with  the  spirit  of  the  kind  Samaritan,  pro- 
ceeds to  cure  its  ills  with  the  medicine  of  organic 
matter. 

A  **  'forty-niner''  who  faced  death  in  crossing 
the  barren,  death  dealing  plains  of  our  once  called 
Great  American  Desert,  told  the  author  that  when 
digging  for  gold  in  our  Golden  State,  he  once  dug 
a  shaft  into  solid  granite  for  a  depth  of  seventy 
feet,  and  that  out  of  the  broken  pieces  of  granite 
taken  from  the  bottom  of  this  shaft  and  thrown 
upon  the  top  of  the  dump,  there  sprang  plants 
the  genus  of  which  he  nor  any  one  else  that  he 
could  find  had  ever  seen  before.  These  plants 
were  but  the  simple  tools  of  Nature  by  which  she 
was  seeking  to  disintegrate  these  granite  particles 
and  mix  them  up  with  the  organic  matter  pro- 
duced by  the  plants  she  fashioned  to  grow  in  the 
pieces  of  granite,  that  she  might  prepare  a  soil 
for  man's  use  in  growing  crops  for  his  service. 
What  a  lesson  is  taught  by  this  observation  of 


74         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

the  old  miner.  The  author  thinks  of  it  every  time 
he  looks  at  a  piece  of  worn-out  soil.  Does  it  not 
remind  us  that  when  any  soils  are  no  longer  sub- 
mitted to  cultivation,  Nature  starts  the  grow- 
ing of  some  species  of  weeds  upon  them,  in  time 
to  be  followed  with  growing  grasses  and  the  trees 
native  to  the  locality  where  the  soils  are  situated. 
The  weeds,  grass,  and  trees  furnish  the  organic 
matter  that  mixes  with  the  soil,  and  their  roots 
extract  from  the  rock  particles  of  the  soil  the  min- 
erals needed  in  plant  growth  and  so  restores  these 
soils  again  to  fertility. 

From  these  examples  we  ought  to  get  the  vision 
that  the  restoration  of  worn-out  soils  simply  means 
the  feeding  of  them  an  abundance  of  organic  mat- 
ter furnished  by  a  system  of  animal  and  green 
manuring. 

This  is  not  a  new  system  of  fertility  building 
we  are  emphasizing.  It  is  *  *  Nature 's  Way  ^ '  which 
has  been  known  to  agriculture  since  God  inaugu- 
rated the  first  business,  the  business  of  farming. 
It  is  the  only  sure,  safe,  and  solid  foundation  upon 
which  we  may  build  a  permanent  agriculture. 
There  are  valuable  aids  and  stimulants  like  rock 
phosphate,  ground  limestone,  nitrate  of  soda,  pot- 
ash, drainage,  soil  covering,  crop  rotation,  right 
plowing,  proper  tillage,  and  cultivation,  some  of 
which  should  be,  and  some  of  which  must  be,  em- 
ployed to  promote  the  proper  growth  and  assimi- 
lation of  organic  matter,  but  organic  matter  is 
the  keystone  that  makes  the  permanent  arch  of 
agriculture  upon  which  it  is  made  possible  to  build 
a  fertile  soil. 

The  author's  critics  in  passing  judgment  upon 


OUR  WORN  SOILS  75 

this  volume  will  no  doubt  condemn  the  repetition 
we  have  practiced  regarding  the  merits  and  uses 
of  organic  matter.  Our  only  excuse  for  this  repe- 
tition is  that  the  importance  of  organic  matter  to 
the  soils,  and  permanency  of  the  business  of  farm- 
ing, demands  that  its  value  and  necessity  be  em- 
phasized over  and  over  again  until  it  is  so  burned 
into  the  brain  of  every  owner  and  tiller  of  the 
soil  that  its  use  for  fertility  building  and  soil 
restoration  will  become  universal. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  it  is  nevertheless 
the  truth,  that  so  many  tillers  of  the  soil,  although 
they  recognize  the  importance  of  organic  matter 
in  their  business,  seem  utterly  helpless  to  devise 
and  put  into  execution  methods  by  which  they  can 
obtain  it  for  their  sick  and  ailing  soils. 

Much  of  this  is  due  to  effects  of  environment, 
prejudice  engendered  by  jealousy,  lack  of  capital, 
experience  and  education,  and  failures  that  could 
have  been  avoided. 

We  have  shown  how  environment  sets  a  man 
in  his  ways  of  doing  things,  that  might  be  done 
with  safety  under  certain  conditions,  that  cannot 
be  done  under  changed  conditions  without  failure 
and  disaster.  We  have  often  given  demonstra- 
tions of  the  use  of  organic  matter  in  its  various 
forms  that  produced  profitable  and  the  finest  re- 
sults, yet  men  would  see  and  acknowledge  them 
and  yet  never  did  apply  the  same  remedy  to  their 
own  sick  and  dying  soils. 

We  have  been  laughed  at  for  growing  crops  of 
rye  and  vetch  sown  in  growing  corn  at  end  of  cul- 
tivating season,  allowing  same  to  grow  and  cover 
the  soil  during  fall  and  winter  season  without 


76         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

pasturing,  and  tlien  plowing  under  tlie  same  to- 
gether with  the  com  stalks  in  the  spring  to  the 
depth  of  nine  or  more  inches.  We  were  called 
foolish  for  not  utilizing  the  pasture  that  this 
method  afforded,  yet,  by  this  method  of  procedure, 
we  restored  worn-out  soil  to  a  fertility  that  made 
it  produce  profitable  crops  and  doubled  its  value. 

We  have  grown  crops  of  fine  alfalfa  on  worn 
soil  in  the  driest  of  seasons,  which  afforded  an 
abundance  of  hay  and  pasture  for  all  kinds  of 
stock  throughout  the  entire  summer  and  fall  sea- 
son, when  neighbors'  fields  were  bare,  and  they 
were  compelled  to  have  their  children  to  herd 
their  cattle  along  the  roadsides  that  they  might 
graze  the  little  dried  up  blue  grass  that  had  es- 
caped the  ravages  of  drouth.  Why  did  they  not 
imitate  the  example  set  before  them?  It  was  for 
some  of  the  reasons  stated. 

We  make  a  mistake  by  not  feeding  our  soils 
enough  organic  matter.  In  feeding  organic  mat- 
ter to  soils  we  must  somewhat  follow  the  rules  of 
stock  feeding.  No  animal  will  grow  to  maturity 
in  a  first  class  and  profitable  condition  unless  it 
has  been  constantly  fed  sufficient  and  the  right 
kind  of  food.  We  can  not  feed  to-day  and  starve 
to-morrow  and  expect  profitable  results.  It  is  the 
same  with  our  wearing  soils.  One  dose  or  feed 
of  organic  matter  every  three  or  four  years  is 
not  sufficient,  for  organic  matter  in  the  soil  is 
consumed  in  plant  growth  so  fast  that  its  supply 
is  soon  exhausted  unless  some  method  has  been 
inaugurated  upon  the  farm  by  which  constant 
supplies  can  be  secured  to  the  soil.  Therefore 
the  system  of  animal  and  green  manuring  we  es- 


OUR  WORN  SOILS  77 

tablish  must  be  sucli  a  one  that  furnishes  the  or- 
ganic matter  in  abundance  each  year.  We  need 
not  fear  an  over  production  of  organic  matter  for 
our  soils. 

It  is  easy  to  provide  upon  every  farm  a  system 
that  will  furnish  each  year  an  abundance  of  or- 
ganic matter.  When  cultivation  has  been  finished 
in  the  corn  crop,  sow  one  and  one-half  bushels  of 
rye  to  the  acre  or  forty  pounds  of  hairy  vetch  to 
the  acre,  or  a  mixture  of  one  bushel  of  rye  and 
twenty  pounds  of  hairy  vetch  to  the  acre,  and  an 
abundance  of  the  best  organic  matter  obtainable 
will  be  furnished  in  time  for  plowing  under  in  the 
following  spring. 

After  wheat  harvest  disc  up  the  stubble  and  sow 
hungarian  and  you  will  have  a  fine  crop  of  organic 
matter  for  turning  under  in  the  fall  to  follow  with 
wheat.  Or  if  the  stubble  ground  is  wanted  for 
corn  the  next  season,  then  disc  up  and  sow  to  rye 
or  hairy  vetch,  or  a  mixture  of  the  two.  By  a 
little  thought,  a  little  planning,  quite  a  good  deal  of 
energy  and  some  work,  many  ways  can  be  devised 
by  which  your  soils  will  each  year  be  furnished 
with  an  abundance  of  organic  matter  if  you  do  not 
have  sufficient  supplies  of  manure. 

Many  contend  that  one  crop  of  clover  every 
three  or  four  years  supplies  sufficient  organic 
matter  for  our  soils.  Never  was  a  greater  fallacy 
promulgated  if  the  clover  crop  is  handled  as  it  is 
usually  handled  upon  the  average  farm,  which  is 
to  remove  both  hay  and  seed  crop  and  then  pasture 
until  nothing  remains  but  the  root  system.  The 
root  system  of  clover  will  furnish  too  small  an 
amount  of  organic  matter  so  the  little  you  would 


78         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

get  from  one  crop  in  the  course  of  three  or  four 
years  would  not  suffice,  and  this  fact  no  doubt  ac- 
counts for  the  fact  that  where  clover  is  depended 
upon  to  furnish  the  fertility  of  our  soils,  there 
we  have  an  abundance  of  worn  and  worn-out  soils, 
in  fine,  the  soils  become  so  that  they  will  no  longer 
produce  clover  in  quantity. 

Clover  has  been  chiefly  grown  upon  our  soils  be- 
cause it  was  believed  to  be  an  organic  matter  pro- 
ducer and  one  of  the  nitrogen  gathering  plants 
that  gathers  the  nitrogen  from  the  air  and  stores 
it  into  the  soil.  And  yet  it  is  a  notorious  fact 
that  all  lands  that  grow  clover  for  a  series  of 
years  become  *^ clover  sick'*  and  refuse  to  grow 
it  at  all.  Millions  of  dollars  have  been  invested 
in  clover  seed  which  never  brought  back  a  penny 
in  crop  returns.  Soil  becomes  clover  sick  because 
it  has  lost  its  lime  and  organic  matter  content, 
chiefly  on  account  of  the  latter.  Restore  lime  by 
the  use  of  ground  limestone,  from  two  to  six  tons 
per  acre,  grow  green  manuring  crops  like  rye, 
vetch  and  sweet  clover,  that  furnish  large  quanti- 
ties of  organic  matter,  and  you  get  the  soil  in  con- 
dition again  to  grow  clover. 

The  author  has  seen  worn  soil  that  refused  to 
grow  clover,  planted  to  rye,  the  rye  was  sown  in 
the  corn  in  August,  and  the  rye  and  corn  stalks  g-11 
plowed  under  in  the  spring.  After  one  or  two 
crops  of  the  organic  matter  that  this  system  fur- 
nished had  been  plowed  into  this  soil,  big  crops  of 
clover  was  grown  upon  it  again. 

For  the  past  seven  years  rye  has  been,  with  the 
author  and  numerous  of  his  acquaintances  as 
well,  one  of  his  chief  organic  matter  producers. 


OUR  WORN  SOILS  79 

And  for  this  plant  as  an  organic  producer,  lie  has 
none  but  the  highest  praise.  It  can  be  sown  in 
the  fall  in  corn  or  in  the  open,  at  a  cost  of  less  than 
two  dollars  per  acre  for  seed,  and  the  labor  re- 
quired to  sow  it  is  hardly  worthy  of  consideration, 
for  the  farmer,  generally,  is  not  pushed  with  his 
work  at  this  season.  It  quickly  grows  to  sufficient 
size  to  furnish  the  finest  cover  crop  for  winter 
and  spring,  thus  giving  the  great  advantage  ob- 
tained to  the  soil  by  the  use  of  a  cover  crop.  Then 
it  quickly  springs  up  to  sufficient  height  in  the 
spring  for  plowing  under  in  time  for  the  planting 
of  the  corn  crop.  It  fills  the  soil  for  a  depth  of 
eight  or  nine  inches  with  a  splendid  root  system 
containing  an  immense  amount  of  organic  matter, 
rendering  the  soil  loose  or  friable.  If  the  farmer 
thinks  he  must  pasture  his  stock  fields,  or  is  in 
sore  need  of  pasture  that  he  can  not  supply  else- 
where, the  author  knows  of  no  plant  grown  on  the 
farm  that  will  produce  fall,  winter  and  spring 
pasture  quicker  and  so  abundantly  as  rye.  And 
yet,  in  spite  of  any  severe  pasturing  you  may  give 
it,  its  large  root  system  will  give  an  abundance 
of  organic  matter  for  the  soil.  And  the  best  char- 
acteristic of  the  rye  plant  is  its  ability  to  grow, 
flourish,  and  produce  abundantly  in  any  soil,  no 
matter  how  poor,  without  aids  or  stimulants.  It 
is  truly  the  best  and  cheapest  green  manuring 
crop  for  the  farm,  and  yet  one  of  the  least  appre- 
ciated and  understood  by  the  farmer.  The  author 
speaks  thus  of  rye,  after  years  of  careful  experi- 
ence with  it  upon  his  own  land  and  land  he  has 
rented,  and  careful  observation  of  the  experiences 
of  other  farmers  with  the  plant. 


80         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

A  striking  experience  and  observation  came  to 
him  during  the  season  of  1913.  Near  his  home  is 
situated  a  prairie.  It  is  a  stretch  of  Wabash  river 
bottom  land  of  a  thousand  or  more  acres,  sur- 
rounded by  hills  from  the  crest  of  which  a  view 
of  the  entire  prairie  is  had.  This  tract  of  land 
when  first  subjected  to  cultivation  was  the  richest 
of  land.  It  has  been  farmed  for  nearly  a  century 
and  because  of  its  virgin  richness  little  attention 
has  been  paid  to  its  refertilization,  and  so  it  has 
become  much  worn.  For  years  it  has  been  the 
corn  belt's  choicest  com  land,  and  so  com,  corn, 
and  corn,  has  been  grown  upon  it  for  several  gen- 
erations, and  much  of  it  is  now  fairly  in  the  worn- 
soil  class.  A  few  years  ago  the  author  rented 
two  hundred  acres  of  this  land  and  grew  upon  it 
peas  and  sugar  corn  for  his  canning  factory.  In 
the  fall  of  1911  he  planted  a  large  field  of  this  land 
to  rye,  sowing  the  rye  in  the  sweet  corn  that  he 
grew  upon  this  land.  No  pasturing  was  per- 
mitted and  in  the  spring  of  1912  the  rye  and  corn 
stalks  were  plowed  under,  the  plows  being  set  to 
plow  nine  inches  in  depth.  Some  of  the  rye  had 
headed  out  before  it  was  plowed  under.  After 
plowing  the  soil  it  was  properly  worked  down  and 
the  whole  planted  to  sweet  corn,  and  a  fine  crop 
was  grown  upon  it.  In  the  spring  of  1913  this 
same  land  was  broken  up  and  planted  to  field  corn 
by  the  owner.  The  author  did  not  see  this  field 
during  the  season  of  1913  until  about  October  1st, 
when  he  took  a  view  of  the  prairie  from  the  crest 
of  the  hills.  Nearly  the  entire  prairie  was  planted 
to  field  com,  and  remember  that  the  character  of 
all  its  soil  was  the  same.    As  the  author  viewed 


OUR  WORN  SOILS  81 

this  sea  of  waving  corn  a  pleasing  sight  greeted 
his  eyes.  The  com  upon  this  particular  field 
stood  out  prominently  above  its  kind,  like  the 
sturdy,  tall,  broad  shouldered  man,  in  a  crowd  of 
men.  It  was  easy  to  see  that  it  had  been  furnished 
a  fertility  from  the  soil  that  its  neighbor  com 
growing  on  the  same  kind  of  soil  had  not  received, 
that  had  sent  up  its  vigorous  body  above  its  fel- 
lows, and  when  the  husbandman  gathered  its  pro- 
duce it  produced  far  in  excess  of  any  corn  grow- 
ing upon  this  prairie.  This  com  had  gotten  the 
food  that  made  it  produce  so  strikingly  and  well 
from  the  organic  matter  put  into  this  soil  by  a  rye 
crop. 

If  we  who  are  engaged  in  the  business  of  farm- 
ing could  only  be  impressed  with  the  truth  that  a 
worn  or  worn-out  soil  is  a  hungry  soil;  that  a 
hungry  soil  like  a  hungry  man  or  a  hungry  beast 
can  not  do  normal  work  or  give  the  best  service 
to  its  owner,  we  would  feed  our  soils  the  food  that 
would  enable  them  to  bear  the  burden  of  crop 
growing  and  the  food  we  would  feed  them  would 
be  the  food  nature  designed  for  them — organic 
matter. 

In  feeding  our  soils  organic  matter  let  us  not 
forget  that  the  plowing  under  of  the  following 
green  crops  equals  tons  of  barnyard  manure  to 
the  acre  as  follows : 

Vetch,  about  forty  tons.  Rye,  twenty  tons. 
Alfalfa,  thirty  tons.  Clover,  Cow  Peas,  Soy 
Beans,  and  Canada  Field  Peas,  about  twenty  tons, 
thus  making  it  easy  for  the  farmer  to  get  cheaply 
an  abundance  of  organic  matter  for  his  soils,  and 
thereby  push  up  his  soil  to  a  wonderful  fertility. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  PROFITS  OF  THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

AS  a  general  proposition,  does  farming  pay? 
There  can  be  but  one  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion and  that  is  *'Yes/'  He  who  answers  **No'' 
overlooks  the  farmer's  living.  The  vast  majority 
of  mercantile  and  other  businesses  do  not  pay 
more  than  a  living  to  their  owners,  and  the  same 
is  true  of  the  business  of  farming.  But  a  busi- 
ness that  does  not  pay  more  than  a  living  is  not 
to  be  despised  or  looked  upon  with  disfavor. 

We  have  said  that  much  is  to  be  learned  and 
much  comfort  is  to  be  obtained  by  comparisons. 
When  you  are  in  distress  think  of  your  neighbor 
who  is  in  greater  distress.  If  your  business  is  not 
paying  what  it  should,  think  of  your  competitor 
who  has  been  thrown  into  bankruptcy.  A  business 
that  pays  a  living  to  its  owner  can  be  made  to  pay 
a  surplus.  No  immense  fortunes  were  ever  made 
out  of  the  business  of  farming,  yet  a  vast  number 
of  moderate  fortunes  have  been  won  from  the  soil, 
and  we  should  not  forget  that  the  net  income  of 
the  average  farmer  is  greater  than  the  net  income 
of  the  average  city  man.  A  business,  therefore, 
that  will  yield  a  greater  average  income  to  those 
engaged  in  it  than  any  other  business,  is  to  be 
coveted. 

The  struggle  for  existence  by  a  large  portion 

82 


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PEOFITS  OF  THE  BUSINESS         83 

of  our  city  people  under  present  conditions  in  our 
cities  and  towns  is  a  human  tragedy,  and  life's 
pathway  is  strewn  with  its  victims.  You  do  not 
find  this  condition  on  our  farms.  The  farmers 
of  our  land  are  not  subject  to  the  incessant  toil 
and  grind  that  is  the  lot  of  so  many  city  men  and 
women. 

So  the  business  of  farming  is  not  retrograding 
if  the  majority  of  our  farms  are  not  paying  their 
owners  more  than  a  living,  for  by  better  methods 
of  farming,  they  can  be  made  to  produce  a  nice 
surplus.  If  the  average  farm  is  not  paying  a  liv- 
ing the  fault  is  with  the  owner  and  not  with  the 
farm.  Of  course  the  owner  may  be  handicapped 
by  lack  of  capital  and  other  disadvantages,  but  the 
living  and  the  profit  is  in  the  farm  and  can  be 
brought  forth  by  proper  effort.  To  get  the  best 
out  of  any  business  we  must  devote  ourselves  as- 
siduously to  its  every  detail  with  an  enthusiasm 
akin  to  infatuation. 

By  conducting  the  business  of  farming  along 
proper  lines  the  incomes  of  our  farms  can  be  more 
than  doubled. 

The  average  number  of  bushels  of  corn  grown 
upon  our  farms  does  not  exceed  thirty.  Sixty  to 
one  hundred  can  be  as  easily  grown.  The  same 
possibilities  for  the  production  of  other  farm  crops 
and  produce  also  obtains. 

As  we  have  said,  no  man  ever  made  a  success 
of  any  business  if  he  was  not  so  interested  in  it 
that  he  could  look  after  its  every  detail  with  such 
enthusiasm  that  he  would  devote  the  very  best 
work  in  him  to  it. 

Those  men  and  women  who  have  accomplished 


84         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

great  achievement,  not  only  planned,  thought,  and 
worked  while  others  slept,  but  worked  with  greater 
vim,  interest  and  direction  when  others  worked. 
No  man  will  ever  make  a  success  of  the  business 
of  farming  unless  he  is  in  love  with  its  work.  The 
listless,  careless,  uninterested,  lazy  farmer  will 
always  make  a  failure  of  the  business. 

But  the  interest  of  the  farmer  in  his  business 
must  extend  farther  than  the  interest  that  makes 
him  simply  a  slave  to  his  work,  or  that  interest 
that  does  not  lead  him  out  in  thought,  the  thought' 
that  leads  him  into  the  mysteries  or  whys  and 
wherefores  of  the  soil,  its  construction,  its  bacte- 
rial life,  and  of  plant  growth,  and  the  other  things 
that  enter  into  soil  building  and  maintenance,  and 
the  producing  and  marketing  of  crops. 

The  great  inventions  and  achievements  of  the 
past  were  not  thought  out  and  constructed  and  ac- 
complished by  the  pleasure  loving  and  pleasure 
seeking  men,  but  by  men  who  regarded  life  as  an 
opportunity  for  the  doing  of  things  worth  while; 
and  in  the  doing  of  which  they  secured  and  en- 
joyed more  pleasure  than  in  the  frivolities  that 
never  satisfy  but  only  aggravate  and  make  more 
acute  the  desire  for  pleasure. 

The  followers  of  the  creed  taught  in  the  catchy 
phrase,  *^A11  work  and  no  play  makes  of  Jack  a 
dull  boy,"  forget  that  there  is  more  danger  in  the 
play  that  lessens  both  manhood  and  womanhood, 
induces  idleness  with  all  its  evils,  than  there  is  in 
plenty  of  work. 

Work  is  not  a  task,  but  one  of  the  choicest  bless- 
ings ever  bestowed  upon  man.  The  game  of  life 
without  it  would  be  listless,  insipid  and  uninspir- 


PKOFITS  OF  THE  BUSINESS         85 

ing,  and  not  worth  the  living.  Nature,  in  her 
every  department,  teaches  us  the  doctrine  of  work 
and  its  attendant  pleasures  and  delights.  Even 
the  many-hued,  sweet,  scent-giving  flowers  that 
so  delight  our  senses,  the  pleasing  fruits  of  tree 
and  field,  and  the  joy  of  beautiful  landscape  and 
open  sky  are  the  products  of  the  constant  work 
of  nature. 

When  we  achieve,  design,  and  fashion  some- 
thing from  our  work,  we  receive  more  pleasure 
from  it  than  we  would  from  any  of  the  frivolous 
amusements  of  life,  and  besides,  we  are  strength- 
ened for  the  fighting  of  life's  battles. 

To  make  the  business  of  farming  successful  the 
man  behind  the  business  must  ever  work  with 
hands  and  brains,  just  as  the  man  behind  any 
business  must  do  to  make  it  successful. 

When  the  farmer  works  constantly  with  both 
hands  and  brain,  he  does  not  become  like  a  ma- 
chine that  grinds  on  each  day  at  its  same  task, 
but  he  is  constantly  accomplishing  things,  and 
seeing  the  glorious  transformation  of  nature  ever 
taking  place  in  the  plant  and  animal  life  upon  the 
farm  and  in  the  open  sky.  If  interested  in  his 
task  as  he  should  be,  the  things  that  he  assists  in 
accomplishing  with  his  hands  and  by  the  direc- 
tion of  his  brain,  will  give  the  greater  pleasure, 
besides  making  his  business  profitable. 

There  is  pleasure  as  well  as  profit  in  the  plan- 
ning of  a  perfect  system  of  drainage  and  its  con- 
struction and  effect  upon  soil,  increasing  crop 
growth,  the  proper  plowing  of  the  soil  and  a  study 
and  application  of  the  best  means,  methods,  and 
appliances  for  plowing,  the  study  of  how  to  pre- 


86         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

pare  the  soil  for  the  planting  of  seed,  the  selecting 
and  study  of  the  best  means  and  appliances  for 
planting  the  seed,  planning  and  putting  into  exe- 
cution the  better  methods  of  cultivation,  study- 
ing plant  growth  and  trying  to  fathom  the  mys- 
teries of  plant  growth,  and  to  ascertain  why  it  is 
that  two  plants  growing  side  by  side  in  the  same 
character  of  soil,  kissed  by  the  same  sunshine  and 
nourished  by  the  same  rains,  the  one  will  produce 
the  food  that  satisfies  and  nourishes  man,  and  the 
other,  fruit  that  poisons  and  kills. 

The  study  of  the  nitrogen  gathering  plants  is  one 
of  the  most  wonderful  and  fascinating  studies  that 
can  engage  any  mind — the  plants  that  have  the 
power  to  draw  from  the  air  the  most  costly  and 
precious  soil  element,  nitrogen,  and  store  it  into 
the  soil  for  the  use  of  growing  plants,  and  thus 
renovate  our  worn  and  worn-out  soils. 

Too  many  farmers  get  into  the  monotonous 
grind  that  too  many  city  men  get  into, — the  grind 
that  throws  about  us  a  state  of  indifference  to 
the  good  and  interesting  tilings  of  our  work ;  that 
will  not  allow  us  to  see  the  greatness,  the  vastness, 
the  inscrutable  mysteries  of  Nature 's  ways.  Oh ! 
if  we  who  are  engaged  in  the  business  of  farming 
would  but  catch  the  vision  of  the  wonders  lying 
at  our  very  feet,  what  a  transformation  would 
result  in  our  business,  resulting  in  increased 
profits. 

Mankind  in  general  go  about  their  daily  tasks 
like  the  driven  galley  slave  and  so  perform  their 
work  with  like  interest,  sighing  that  the  working 
hours  are  so  long,  rejoicing  when  they  are  ended, 


PROFITS  OF  THE  BUSINESS         87 

and  learn  and  enjoy  nothing  from  their  work. 
Work  under  such  conditions  is,  of  course,  a  seem- 
ing curse.  But  he  who  goes  to  his  daily  task  with 
cheerful,  hopeful,  investigating  spirit,  who  seeks 
for  knowledge  and  can  see  the  mystery  of  God  in 
the  common  clay,  the  growing  plants,  and  insect 
life,  who  works  not  only  for  the  money  that  will 
provide  him  with  the  necessities  of  life,  but  for 
the  pleasure  that  it  brings,  has  caught  the  true 
vision  of  life  and  right  living,  and  thrice  happy 
is  he,  for  he  has  found  the  secret  of  right  and 
profitable  living. 

The  man  with  a  vision  plants  a  fruit  tree,  and 
there  is  pictured  upon  the  canvas  of  his  mind  the 
full  grown,  developed  tree,  laden  with  the  fruit 
of  its  kind,  painted  and  flavored  with  the  richest 
colors  and  most  delicious  extracts,  but  he  knows 
that  before  that  picture  can  become  a  reality,  his 
hand  must  give  that  tree  a  fertile  soil,  the  best 
cultivation,  a  scientific  trimming  and  spraying  for 
years.  But  Nature  thus  assisted,  does  her  part, 
and  the  tree,  as  the  years  go  by,  develops  and  in 
time  produces  its  perfect  fruit  and  rewards  the 
labor  of  the  tender.  But  the  tender  took  the 
greatest  delight  in  his  work,  knowing  that  the  time 
would  come  when  his  labor  would  bear  its  reward. 
His  work  was  a  work  worth  while,  and  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  lived  was  made  better  by  his 
work,  for,  he  who  does  nothing  more  than  plant 
a  tree  by  the  wayside  and  tends  it  to  maturity,  has 
done  more  for  mankind  than  he  who  sits  and 
dreams  and  talks  great  things  of  accomplishment, 
but  does  not  a  thing  to  bring  them  about;  or  even 


88         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

he  wlio  ever  works  at  his  task  with  stolid  indiffer- 
ence to  its  importance  or  unmindful  of  its  pleas- 
ures. 

If  the  farmer  gets  the  true  vision  of  farming  and 
sets  out  to  make  it  a  reality,  he  will  surely  find  the 
business  of  farming  a  most  profitable  one.  He 
will  whip  the  loafing  acres  of  his  farm  into  work 
that  will  make  them  produce  a  hundred  fold.  The 
best  breeds  of  stock  will  be  found  upon  his  farm. 
He  will  install  labor-saving  and  pleasure-giving 
appliances.  Farm  surroundings  will  be  made  at- 
tractive, and  he  will  experience  the  true  joy  of 
living.  The  delights  of  fertile  fields  with  their  bur- 
den of  profitable  produce  will  be  his,  prosperity 
will  abound,  and  though  he  may  not  accumulate 
the  large  fortune,  yet  his  business  will  give  him 
the  profit  that  gives  comfort,  happiness  and  nec- 
essary ease,  with  the  proper  environments  for 
the  right  living  and  growth  of  himself  and  family, 
and  the  business  that  does  this  is,  after  all  that 
can  be  said,  the  best  and  most  profitable  one  in 
which  any  man  can  engage. 


CHAPTER  VI 

EQUIPMENTS    NECESSAKY   FOR    CARRYING   ON    THE 
BUSINESS    OF    FARMING 

TO  engage  in  the  manufacturing  business  it  is 
essential  that  one  has  a  plant  or  building 
equipped  with  the  necessary  machinery,  and  pos- 
sessed of  the  raw  materials,  so  that  the  products 
of  the  manufacturing  concern  can  be  prepared  for 
market,  and  the  buildings  and  machinery  must  be 
such  that  can  work  up  the  raw  material  so  that  the 
owner  can  prepare  and  put  on  the  market  a  good 
product  at  a  reasonable  price  and  yet  make  a 
profit. 

The  farm  is  the  farmer's  manufacturing  plant. 
His  chief  raw  material  is  the  soil.  His  machinery 
is  his  live  stock  and  farm  machinery  necessary  to 
run  his  plant.  He  and  his  hired  men  are  the  work- 
men who  work  up  the  raw  material  into  crops  and 
the  other  products  of  his  plant. 

The  farm  is  as  much  of  a  manufacturing  plant  as 
a  steel  or  iron  works,  and  to  yield  its  owner  a 
profit,  must  be  managed  and  worked  under  a  busi- 
ness system  as  complete  in  its  detail  and  perfec- 
tion as  any  by  which  our  most  successful  manu- 
facturing plants  are  managed  and  operated.  But 
a  manufacturing  plant,  to  be  successful,  must  be 
located  favorably  as  to  markets  and  of  easy  access 
to  raw  materials.    A  plate-glass  factory  in  the 


90         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

Sahara  Desert,  while  accessible  to  good  polishing 
sands,  and  sands  from  which  good  glass  might 
perhaps  be  made,  yet  it  would  be  so  remote  from 
markets  for  the  finished  product,  and  for  the  se- 
curing of  other  materials  that  go  into  the  manu- 
facture of  plate-glass,  that  it  would  be  a  miserable 
failure. 

Not  every  farm  is  favorably  situated  as  to  mar- 
kets for  all  the  products  that  can  be  produced  upon 
the  farm.  A  farm  far  removed  from  a  railroad 
or  consuming  center  might  produce  the  finest  fruit 
and  vegetables  that  can  be  grown,  but  what  profit 
would  there  be  in  growing  such  if  there  be  not  an 
accessible  market? 

The  successful  farmer  considers  these  things 
and  so  produces  those  products  upon  his  farm  that 
can  be  disposed  of  to  advantage  or  profit.  The 
staple  crops  of  corn,  wheat,  oats  and  live  stock, 
can  be  marketed  from  most  any  farm,  no  matter 
where  located,  yet  in  the  marketing  of  these  prod- 
ucts a  greater  profit  is  secured  if  the  farm  be  in 
easy  access  to  the  market. 

We  who  already  own  our  farms  must  make  the 
best  of  our  situations  and  grow  such  crops,  or 
produce  such  farm  products  as  we  can  market 
to  the  best  advantage  and  profit,  and  which  will 
grow,  or  can  be  produced  upon  our  soils.  Of 
course  we  should  grow  the  crops  that  fit  the  soil, 
yet  it  is  wonderful  how  many  different  crops 
will  fit  upon  most  any  soil.  If  we  are  in  the  mar- 
ket for  a  farm,  then  we  should  determine  the 
kind  of  farming  in  which  we  wish  to  engage,  and 
buy  the  farm  that  will  not  only  produce  them,  but 
from  which  they  can  be  marketed  to  the  best  ad- 


EQUIPMENTS  NECESSAEY  91 

vantage  and  profit.  Assuming  that  we  own  our 
farms,  how  are  we  to  make  them  successful,  and 
what  equipments  are  necessary  to  that  end? 

The  very  foundation  and  the  success  of  the  busi- 
ness of  farming  is  based  upon  the  soil.  It  is  the 
raw  material  from  which  farm  products  are  to  be 
fashioned.  If  the  soil  be  unproductive,  shorn  of 
its  fertility,  then  we  only  produce  the  limited 
amounts  of  farm  products  that  scarcely,  and  in 
many  instances,  do  not  pay  the  cost  of  production, 
and  so  the  business  of  farming  such  soils  becomes 
a  failure. 

And  if  our  soils  even  be  so  fertile  that  they  will 
produce  products  that  pay  a  profit,  yet  if  we  farm 
such  soils  for  a  series  of  years  without  a  thought 
or  action  towards  doing  those  things  that  maintain 
soil  fertility,  we  will  soon  pass  them  into  the  class 
that  does  not  pay  a  profit.  Therefore,  that  thing 
which  is  essential  to  the  success  of  the  business 
of  farming  should  receive  our  most  careful  con- 
sideration, and  yet  we  have  shown  how  it  has  been 
neglected  in  the  past.  When  our  soils  were  new, 
or  at  the  time  they  were  first  submitted  to  the  task 
of  growing  crops,  they  were  so  rich  in  fertility, 
and  free  from  weed  and  insect  pest,  that  they 
would  grow  bumper  crops  with  little  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  husbandman.  The  pioneer  could  plant 
his  corn  in  a  shallow  plowed  soil  between  the 
stumps  of  his  newly  cleared  ground,  or  in  the  few 
inches  of  upturned  prairie  sod,  give  it  a  little 
cultivation,  and  be  assured  of  an  enormous  crop. 
Such  a  system  of  planting  and  cultivation  in  our 
soils  that  have  been  in  cultivation  for  a  half  cen- 
tury or  more,  would  mean  utter  crop  failure. 


92         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

Nearly  forty  years  ago  the  author  assisted  in 
clearing  a  heavy  growth  of  timber  from  parts  of 
rich  Indiana  timber  soil.  It  was  a  hard,  labo- 
rious task  to  fit  it  for  the  plow  the  first  time,  and 
not  only  hard  and  laborious,  but  a  trying,  exasper- 
ating task,  to  plow  the  small  area  of  soil  not  oc- 
cupied by  the  tree  stumps  and  roots,  which  almost 
occupied  the  entire  soil,  but  it  was  only  necessary 
to  sufficiently  scratch  the  soil  to  cover  the  seed. 
However,  the  plowing  of  the  soil  under  these  con- 
ditions was  attended  with  such  discomforts  and 
exasperating  difficulties,  as  would  cause  a  young 
man  engaged  in  the  task  to  dream  of  a  city  life 
and  to  abandon  the  farm. 

In  the  course  of  time  the  stumps  and  the  roots 
decayed  and  were  removed  and  the  soil  was  sub- 
jected to  years  of  crop  growing  with  little  heed 
being  paid  to  soil  fertilization  or  the  maintenance 
of  soil  fertility,  and  so  it  took  less  than  a  genera- 
tion to  put  them  into  the  worn  soil  class. 

A  short  time  ago  it  was  the  author's  privilege 
to  tramp  over  the  fields  he  had  helped  to  clear  of 
their  forest  growth  nearly  a  half  century  ago,  and 
to  him  it  was  a  pathetic  sight  to  behold  their 
wasted  fertility,  as  evidenced  by  their  stunted 
crop  growth.  If  these  soils  had  been  farmed  un- 
der the  business  system  that  obtains  in  our  most 
successful  manufacturing  plants  and  business 
houses,  their  fertility  would  have  been  kept  up 
and  they  would  to-day  be  as  rich  in  plant  food  ele- 
ments as  when  first  rescued  from  the  wilderness 
of  timber  growth. 

That  farm  products  can  be  produced  at  a  profit, 


EQUIPMENTS  NECESSARY  93 

and  at  the  same  time  the  soil  fertility  be  main- 
tained and  even  increased,  is  an  established  fact, 
and  is  no  longer  open  to  serious  discussion,  but 
it  can  not  be  done  by  the  old  methods  of  farming 
which  have  been  mostly  in  vogue  in  this  land  of 
ours,  and  by  which  our  soils  have  become  worn 
and  worn-out. 

The  fact  that  when  our  soils  were  new  and  were 
covered  with  the  wilderness  of  timber  and  prairie 
growth,  it  required  brawn  rather  than  brains  to 
subdue  them  and  bring  them  into  cultivation,  and 
the  further  fact  that  the  simple  covering  of  seed 
produced  large  crops  without  intensive  cultiva- 
tion, has  led  to  an  environment  upon  the  farm  by 
which  the  study  of  the  needs  of  the  soil  was  neg- 
lected; for,  as  shown,  the  soil  seemed  to  be  able 
for  several  generations  to  produce  the  crops  that 
pay  the  profit  without  anything  being  done  to  feed 
it,  that  fertility  might  be  maintained  and  in- 
creased ;  but  in  process  of  time  the  fertility  of  the 
soil  was  farmed  out,  and  we  have  already  shown 
that  the  farmers  of  our  country,  when  they  were 
brought  face  to  face  with  this  condition,  simply 
moved  on  and  preempted  new  lands  and  subdued 
them  to  the  same  process  of  cultivation  and  soil 
exhaustion.  But  now,  when  nearly  all  our  virgin 
soil  has  been  preempted,  we  are  compelled  to  do 
the  things  that  will  restore  fertility  to  our  soils 
or  perish. 

If  the  farm  is  a  manufacturing  plant  and  the 
soil  is  the  raw  material  out  of  which  is  shaped 
and  fashioned  the  farm's  finished  products,  it  is 
therefore  evident  that  the  soil  must  be  at  its  best 


94:         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

or  farm  products  of  market  value,  and  in  abun- 
dance, cannot  be  manufactured  or  produced  from 
it. 

He  who  owns  this  manufacturing  plant,  the 
farm,  must  have  a  good  working  soil  rich  in  the 
elements  capable  of  producing  crops  in  abundance 
and  at  a  price  that  will  make  this  manufacturing 
plant  pay  dividends.  The  soil  thus  becomes  the 
farmer's  chief  consideration  and  concern.  If  the 
farmer  is  wise  and  has  a  business  head,  he  will 
see  to  it  that  his  soil  fertility  is  not  only  conserved, 
but  is  increased.  When  the  farmer  realizes  that 
the  fertility  of  this  soil  is  the  basis  of  his  pros- 
perity, his  happiness,  his  existence,  then  he  be- 
comes a  true  disciple  of  the  business  of  farming, 
not  impregnated  with  that  greed  and  avarice  that 
plunders  and  robs  the  soil,  but  imbued  with  the 
spirit  that  recognizes  that  soil  is  a  living  thing  and 
must  be  fed  and  groomed  as  we  feed  and  groom 
our  beloved  domestic  animals. 

Had  not  greed  and  avarice  taken  possession  of 
the  farmer  of  the  past,  agriculture  would  have 
never  known  such  a  thing  as  worn  and  worn-out 
soil  or  the  abandoned  farm.  The  killing  of  the 
fabled  goose  that  laid  the  golden  egg  in  order  to 
find  the  mass  of  gold  supposed  to  be  hidden  in  the 
goose,  and  secure  it  all  at  once,  has  had  its  exem'- 
plification  in  the  constant  pushing  of  the  soil's  pro- 
duction to  the  limit  of  its  power,  year  after  year, 
for  a  half  century  or  more,  without  a  thought  of 
conservation  or  feeding  so  as  to  maintain  or  in- 
crease its  power  to  produce  crops. 

The  soil,  then,  being  the  very  foundation  and  the 
chief  asset  of  the  business  of  farming,  it  should 


EQUIPMENTS  NECESSAEY  95 

be  treated  so  as  to  make  it  produce  the  products 
in  quantity  that  make  the  business  of  farming  a 
manufacturing  concern  that  pays  dividends. 

We  have  said  that  some  of  the  essentials  of  the 
successful  manufacturing  plant  are  the  buildings 
and  the  proper  machinery  and  equipments  to  man- 
ufacture the  finished  products,  but  these  are  use- 
less unless  the  raw  material  that  goes  into  the 
•structure  of  the  finished  product  is  available  and 
at  a  price  which,  plus  the  expense  of  the  manufac- 
turing, will  afford  a  profit.  There  is  yet  another 
item,  without  which  the  foregoing  will  be  useless, 
and  that  is  the  element  of  labor,  the  skilled  and 
unskilled  workmen  that  constitute  the  force  or 
the  life  and  energy  that  moves  the  mechanism  of 
the  entire  plant  and  pushes  to  completion  the 
finished  product. 

In  the  business  of  farming,  the  home,  the  barn, 
out-buildings  and  open  sky  are  the  buildings ;  the 
plows,  the  harness,  and  other  farm  implements 
are  the  machinery  of  the  farming  plant;  and  the 
seed  and  grains  for  planting,  the  live  stock  and 
the  soil,  are  the  raw  materials  to  be  worked  up 
into  the  finished  products  of  the  farm.  All  the 
essentials  of  the  manufacturing  plant  mentioned 
are  necessary  for  the  production  of  the  finished 
product,  a  lack  of  any  prevents  production.  A 
poor  quality  of  either  machinery,  appliances,  la- 
bor, or  raw  material,  means  a  poor  or  shoddily 
finished  product.  And  the  same  is  true  of  the 
business  of  farming. 

The  buildings  must  be  sufficient  to  house  the 
working  man  and  the  live  stock;  the  soil  must  be 
of  the  quality  that  will  produce  its  maximum;  the 


96         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

seeds  and  grain  that  will  germinate  with  vitality 
and  produce  the  best  of  their  kind;  and  the  live 
stock  that  have  health,  pedigree,  breeding,  that 
measure  up  to  the  perfection  of  their  kind.  But 
after  all,  there  is  a  genius  or  guiding  hand  back 
of  the  manufacturing  plant  that  was  responsible 
for  its  conception,  its  being,  its  growth,  and  its 
continuing  prosperity.  So  must  there  be  a  genius 
or  the  guiding  hand  behind  the  business  of  farm- 
ing, which  is  the  hand  that  conserves  the  fertility 
and  governs  the  destiny  of  every  part  and  portion 
of  the  farm. 

In  most  manufacturing  plants,  exact  costs  and 
profits  can  be  figured,  but  not  so  with  the  busi- 
ness of  farming,  for  we  cannot  control  the  condi- 
tions that  will  give  us  the  proper  rain  and  sun- 
shine to  germinate  the  seed  and  produce  the 
crops,  nor  can  we  know  the  extent  of  the  horde  of 
insects  and  other  pests  that  may  sweep  down  upon 
our  farms,  the  combating  of  which  adds  largely 
to  the  cost  of  production,  and  ofttimes  cannot  be 
combated,  which  results  in  either  a  partial  or 
total  destruction  of  our  crops. 

Neither  can  standardization  be  put  into  effect 
upon  the  farm  as  it  is  in  the  factory.  While  the 
business  has  as  many  of  the  uncertainties  as  any 
other  business,  yet  scientific  farming  is  fast 
eliminating  many  of  these  uncertainties.  The  ef- 
fect of  drought  is  being  overcome.  The  breeding 
of  seeds  and  animals  is  to  a  great  extent  mak- 
ing standards  of  grain  and  stock,  so  that  when  we 
plant  seeds  of  a  certain  kind,  or  breed  our  stock 
to  certain  breeds,  we  may  depend  upon  nature 
reproducing  in  kind. 


EQUIPMENTS  NECESSARY  97 

To  him  who  already  owns  his  farm,  no  good 
purpose  can  be  subserved  by  entering  into  any 
scientific  discussion  of  the  formation  and  com- 
position of  soils.  All  that  he  who  is  engaged  in 
the  business  of  farming  needs  to  know  about  the 
foundation  or  composition  of  soils,  is  that  one 
class  is  composed  of  an  abundance  of  small  rock 
particles  in  which  are  locked  up  the  soil  minerals 
accompanied  with  little  vegetable  or  organic  mat- 
ter, known  as  our  sandy  soils;  another  class  has 
an  abundance  of  decomposed  rocks  containing 
aluminous  minerals,  known  as  our  clay  soils,  and 
another  has  the  abundance  of  vegetable  or  or- 
ganic matter  known  as  our  muck  soils. 

Air,  sunlight  and  water,  entering  into  and  com- 
ing in  contact  with  these  soils  produce  the  con- 
dition essential  to  plant  growth.  That  some  of 
these  soils  do  not  produce  an  abundant  crop 
growth,  is  due  to  the  lack  of  some  essential  plant 
food  element  which  must  be  supplied. 

If  farmers  would  become  Nature  students  and 
would  study  her  ways  and  her  doings,  they  would 
make  a  greater  success  of  the  business  of  farm- 
ing, for  if  they  would  do  this,  they  would  learn 
the  simple  lesson  that  when  Nature  fashioned  the 
soil  she  first  took  the  rock  particles  of  the  soil, 
started  the  vegetable  growth  into  them,  which  not 
only  dissolved  the  mineral  elements  locked  up 
in  the  rock  of  the  soil,  but  filled  it  with  vegetable 
and  organic  matter,  all  of  which  is  the  food  upon 
which  plants  feed,  and  are  the  means  of  letting 
air  into  the  soil  that  plants  may  perform  the  nec- 
essary function  of  breathing. 

Plenty  of  air,  moisture,  sunlight,  mineral  and 


98         THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

organic  matter  make  the  fertile  soil,  and  produce 
the  condition  essential  to  healthy,  abundant  plant 
growth.  If  this  be  true,  then  to  make  our  soils 
fertile  and  put  them  upon  a  profitable  basis  for 
the  successful  conduct  of  the  business  of  farm- 
ing, is  to  learn  to  do  the  things  that  will  bring 
about  these  conditions. 

God  furnishes  us  with  plenty  of  air  and  sun- 
shine, and  we  need  not  give  ourselves  any  concern 
about  these  elements,  except  to  ascertain  how  to 
get  the  air  into  the  soil.  Sunlight  coming  into 
contact  with  the  soil  produces  the  warmth  neces- 
sary to  wake  up  and  bring  into  action  the  sleeping 
life  of  the  seed.  Getting  the  air  into  the  soil  is 
the  simple  process  of  ditching  the  soil  and  filling 
it  with  organic  matter ;  both  these  things  let  into 
the  soil  an  abundance  of  air  if  done  in  the  proper 
manner. 

We  must  know  our  soils.  This  knowledge  is 
the  very  foundation  of  the  success  of  the  business 
of  farming.  Hosts  of  farmers  in  numbers  as  the 
sands  of  the  sea  have  spent  their  lives  upon  the 
soils  of  Mother  Earth,  and  even  in  their  last  days 
were  as  ignorant  of  the  needs  and  possibilities  of 
their  soils,  and  the  correct  methods  of  handling 
them,  as  little  children.  To  prove  this  statement 
we  have  but  to  point  to  the  world's  worn,  worn- 
out  and  abandoned  farms  which  have  chiefly  been 
owned  by  this  class  of  men. 

The  injunction  has  come  ringing  down  through 
the  ages,  **Man,  know  thyself.''  If  then  the  soil 
IS  the  very  foundation  of  man's  existence  here 
on  earth,  it  is  as  equally  important  that  men 
should  know  their  soils,  that  they  may  ascertain 


EQUIPMENTS  NECESSAEY  99 

their  wants  and  their  needs  and  learn  how  to 
make  them  produce  the  paying  crops. 

So  to  carry  on  successfully  the  business  of 
farming,  the  equipment  of  a  good  fertile  soil  is 
the  first  requisite.  There  is  no  substitute  for  it. 
And  not  only  you  who  are  about  to  engage  in  the 
business,  but  you  who  are  already  in  the  business, 
must  get  this  fact  so  imbedded  in  your  minds  that 
the  study  of  the  soil  and  the  best  methods  of  main- 
taining and  increasing  its  fertility,  becomes  with 
you  a  ** ruling  passion,''  for  there  is  no  other  way 
to  make  a  success  of  the  business  of  farming 
upon  our  farm  lands  that  have  been  subjected  to 
cultivation  for  twenty-five  or  more  years. 

The  next  necessary  equipments  to  secure  suc- 
cess in  the  business  of  farming  are,  as  already 
stated,  sufficient  buildings  to  properly  house  your 
family  and  your  stock,  the  very  best  modern  la- 
bor-saving farm  implements  and  machinery, 
plenty  of  draft  giving  horses  and  mules,  or  other 
power  for  moving  implements  and  machinery, 
sufficient  money  making  breeds  of  stock,  and  suf- 
ficient money  to  finance  farming  operations. 

But  after  all,  is  it  not  the  ^^man  behind  the 
gun"  that  counts  in  any  battle  I  The  govern- 
ment furnishes  the  equipment  for  warfare,  the 
generals  plan  the  lines  of  attack  and  start  the 
battle,  but  the  success  of  the  battle  depends 
largely  upon  the  **man  behind  the  gun."  If  he 
fails  in  his  duty,  either  from  want  of  attention, 
action,  or  competency,  defeat  and  rout  results. 
In  the  business  of  farming  old  Mother  Nature, 
human  skill  and  invention  furnish  the  chief 
equipment   for   carrying    on   the   business,    the 


100       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

knowledge  furnislied  by  educational  processes  and 
experience  is  the  general  that  directs  the  line  of 
action  or  attack,  but  the  man  behind  the  plow  is 
responsible  for  the  success  of  the  business.  If 
he  fails  in  his  duty  for  want  of  attention,  action 
or  competency,  defeat  and  rout  results. 

While  no  elaborate  equipment  is  necessary  for 
the  successful  carrying  on  of  the  business  of  farm- 
ing, yet  the  equipment  must  be  sufficient  to  secure 
even  moderate  success.  There  are  many  men  be- 
hind the  plow  who  hammer  out  success  with 
limited  equipment,  and  these  are  the  men  we 
should  strive  to  emulate,  for  they  give  hope  to 
the  poorly  equipped  farmer  and  the  more  inspira- 
tion to  those  who  are  well  equipped  for  the  busi- 
ness. 

In  this  chapter  little  has  been  said  about  the 
capital  or  money  requisite  to  carry  on  the  busi- 
ness of  farming,  and  the  reason  for  this  omission, 
for  it  is  one  of  the  important  equipments  neces- 
sary for  carrying  on  the  business,  is  that  we  have 
reserved  it  for  special  discussion  in  the  chapter 
pertaining  to  farm  credits. 


CHAPTEE  VII 

KECESSAEY  PKEPAKATIOIT  FOR  THE   BUSINESS  OF 
FARMING 

ACCORDING  to  government  investigations 
forty  per  cent,  of  the  farmers  of  the  coun- 
try believe  that  the  business  of  farming  can  only 
be  learned  by  personal  experience,  and  they  take 
no  stock  in  farmers'  institutes,  demonstration 
agents,  farm  papers  or  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture publication  as  aids  in  the  business  of  farm- 
ing. 

We  have  ever  been  taught  from  our  youth  that 
experience  is  the  best  teacher,  but  we  forget  that 
experience  *4s  the  extract  of  suffering,''  that  it 
is  the  name  given  to  our  follies.  The  chief  trou- 
ble with  most  of  us  is  we  will  not  learn  from  the 
suffering  of  another,  we  must  suffer  ourselves. 
Experience  is  of  no  value  unless  it  is  made  to 
illuminate  the  path  we  are  yet  to  tread.  We  who 
say  we  can  learn  only  from  our  own  experiences, 
should  remember  the  words  of  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin who  said  that  *^  Experience  is  a  dear  school 
but  fools  will  learn  in  no  other  way  and  scarce 
in  that." 

There  has  been  such  a  changed  condition  in  the 
character  of  our  soils  and  the  methods  of  farming 
necessary  to  bring  success  that  it  is  the  height  of 
folly  to  try  to  conduct  much  of  the  business  of 

101 


102       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMINQ 

farming  on  our  experience  of  even  ten  years  ago. 
He  is  the  wise  man  who  not  only  gains  wisdom 
from  his  own  experience,  but  also  from  the  ex- 
perience of  others.  Experience  at  its  best  is  a 
mighty  slow  and  expensive  teacher,  and  we  are 
staking  too  much  when  we  depend  for  our  learn- 
ing and  conduct  upon  it.  It  has  been  aptly  said 
that  **by  experience  we  find  out  a  short  way  by 
long  wandering.''  But  it  was  also  well  said  that 
**  learning  teacheth  more  in  one  year  than  ex- 
perience in  twenty." 

He  is  the  wise  farmer  who  considers  the  re- 
sults of  his  own  experience  with  the  results  of 
the  experiences  of  others  and  is  able  to  gather 
from  the  whole,  methods  of  safe  conduct  for  his 
farm  operations.  It  is  as  true  to-day  that  there 
is  safety  in  a  multitude  of  counselors,  as  it  was 
when  the  words  were  uttered  by  Solomon,  the 
wisest  of  men.  Supposing  a  man  wishing  to  be 
a  lawyer  or  a  physician  would  say  **Away  with 
the  experience  and  teaching  of  those  lawyers  and 
doctors  who  have  recorded  their  knowledge  of 
their  professions  in  the  volumes  they  have 
written,  I  will  none  of  them.  I  will  learn  how  to 
successfully  practice  these  great  professions  by 
my  personal  experience  alone."  How  far  along 
the  roads  of  these  professions  would  he  travel? 
He  would  fall  by  the  wayside  ere  he  started. 
The  man  to  be  successful  in  these  professions 
must  first  become  a  student  and  spend  years  of 
hard,  weary,  discouraging  labor  in  the  study  of 
the  experiences  of  the  great  lights  of  the  profes- 
sion as  recorded  in  the  imperishable  volumes  they 
have  written  for  the  great  benefit  of  mankind. 


NECESSARY  PREPARATION         103 

When  he  has  mastered  these  he  is  ready  to  add  to 
his  knowledge  the  knowledge  gained  by  his  own 
experience.  He  is  then  duly  qualified  to  work  and 
successfully  garner  in  the  fields  of  law  and  medi- 
cine. 

The  same  is  as  true  of  the  business  of  farming. 
The  farmer  of  the  past  scorned  the  study  of 
farming  as  taught  by  book,  history,  chemistry  or 
any  scientific  method.  He  had  at  his  command 
a  soil  rich  in  all  the  elements  of  fertility  for  na- 
ture had  made  it  so,  and  it  came  into  his  posses- 
sion in  its  virgin  richness.  He  had  but  to  plant 
the  seed  and  give  the  growing  plants  but  little 
cultivation,  and  they  produced  a  burden  of  crops, 
and  unfortunately  for  the  business  of  farming, 
this  process  could  be  and  was  continued  for  a 
generation  or  more — at  least  long  enough  to  im- 
bue the  farmer  of  the  past  with  the  false  notion 
that  any  one  could  farm,  and  that  no  scientific 
knowledge  was  required  upon  the  part  of  the 
farmer.  It  was  this  very  state  of  affairs  that  has 
led  to  the  plunder  and  exhaustion  of  our  soils, 
that  has  made  the  abandoned,  worn  and  worn-out 
farm  a  part  of  our  farm  economics. 

But  the  day  of  reckoning  has  come.  We  of  this 
generation  are  reaping  the  follies  perpetrated  by 
our  pioneer  farmers.  We  find  the  fertility  of 
our  soils  waning  or  already  exhausted.  We  are 
confronted  by  *^a  condition  and  not  a  theory." 
To  continue  in  the  way  our  father  farmers  cul- 
tivated their  farms  means  death  and  decay  just 
as  certain  as  death  and  decay  is  written  on  every 
living  thing. 

We  must  admit  that  we  are  facing  a  serious 


104       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

agricultural  condition  and  not  a  theory.  Any  one 
with  observing  eye  can  see  it.  In  every  part  and 
portion  of  our  country  we  stand  in  the  midst  of 
worn  and  worn-out  soils — soils  that  no  longer 
produce  paying  crops.  The  abandoned  farm  is  a 
part  of  our  agricultural  economy,  and  these  worn- 
out  abandoned  soils  are  not  safe  investments  if 
farmed  by  the  same  methods  that  made  them 
worn  and  worn-out,  and  which  led  to  their  aban- 
donment. 

We  have  said  that  if  our  worn  soils  were  but 
possessed  of  tongues,  their  treatment  by  which 
they  have  become  worn-out,  has  been  enough  to 
unloosen  them  and  make  them  speak  with  in- 
dignation. But  although  these  soils  are  with- 
out the  power  of  speech,  they  have  by  actions  that 
speak  louder  than  fiery  words,  shown  their  re- 
sentment and  wrathful  feelings.  They  have  ex- 
pressed their  indignation  by  stunted  crop  growth, 
the  eroding  away  by  washing  rains  and  blowing 
winds  and  refusing  to  grow  crops  that  pay  the 
cost  of  production.  And  yet  some  of  these  speech- 
less, indignant  soils  are  by  their  owners  fed  with 
food  that  does  not  satisfy,  but  only  intensifies  and 
makes  more  acute  their  present  condition.  And 
their  condition  is  further  aggravated  by  being 
cultivated  under  the  mistaken  notion  promulgated 
by  our  government,  that  their  fertility  has  not 
been  exhausted. 

Business  is  nothing  more  than  being  industri- 
ously engaged  in  the  affairs  of  some  occupation 
from  which  we  derive  our  support. 

Generally  we  select  our  business  in  early  life 
and  more  or  less  attempt  to  qualify  ourselves  for 


NECESSARY  PREPARATION         105 

it.  Our  selection  of  a  business  is  governed  by 
circumstances,  desires,  direction,  talent,  or  birth. 
Many  of  us  are  born  into  a  business.  The  ma- 
jority of  men  engaged  in  the  business  of  farming 
were  born  into  it.  A  few  take  it  up  from  desire, 
direction  or  talent.  And  this  has  been  true  in 
every  age,  and  accounts  for  the  fact  that  in  the 
past  there  has  been  so  little  preparation  for  the 
carrying  on  of  the  business  upon  the  part  of  those 
who  have  been  engaged  in  it.  The  farmer  boy 
born  upon  the  farm,  who  did  not  catch  a  vision 
of  the  business  of  city  life,  simply  drifted  into 
the  footsteps  of  his  father  who  likewise  had 
drifted  into  the  business  of  farming,  and  learned 
from  him  the  lesson  of  the  business.  The  edu- 
cation that  he  secured  from  the  schools  he  attended 
was  not  along  the  line  of  farming,  for  the  train- 
ing for  the  business  of  farming  has  had  no  place 
in  the  curriculum  of  the  schools  of  the  past,  and 
too  often  the  education  he  secured  from  the  com- 
mon schools  was  scarcely  enough  for  the  simple 
transactions  of  life.  If,  in  getting  his  education, 
he  caught  no  other  vision  of  business  life,  he 
stayed  upon  the  farm  and  learned  its  lessons  from 
the  school  of  **the  way  father  did  it."  If 
father's  way  was  the  right  way,  and  sad  to  say, 
generally  it  was  not,  he  became  as  proficient  as 
father,  and  if  it  was  his  lot  to  farm  rich  virgin 
soil,  or  soil  that  had  not  lost  its  fertility,  he  made 
a  success  from  a  viewpoint  of  dollars  and  cents. 
But  the  environment  of  the  father  became  the 
environment  of  the  son,  and  if  the  father  had  the 
broad  vision  of  the  business  of  farming,  the  son 
caught  it  also.     Farm  practices  were  transmitted 


106       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAKMING 

from  father  to  son,  and  if  they  were  bad,  and  un- 
fortunately for  the  business  of  farming  many  of 
them  were,  the  business  suffered. 

It  is  said  that  in  the  business  world  the  spirit 
of  the  times  is  scientific  efficiency.  The  well 
managed  manufacturing  plant  installs  that  ma- 
chinery and  eliminates  that  cost  of  labor  and 
materials  which  not  only  increases  efficiency  but 
lowers  the  cost  of  the  finished  product,  and  then 
makes  all  of  those  methods  of  transportation  and 
marketing  that  will  enable  the  manufactured 
product  to  afford  a  profit. 

Scientific  efficiency  must  become  the  paramount 
thing  in  the  business  of  farming.  Therefore,  the 
old  notion  that  any  body  can  farm,  must  be  dis- 
carded and  thrown  upon  the  scrap  heap  of  **  im- 
practical ideas."  Farming  is  a  business  re- 
quiring as  much  brains  and  skill  to  successfully 
conduct  it  as  it  does  to  successfully  conduct  any 
other  business  or  profession. 

We  have  now  reached  that  age  in  our  agricul- 
tural history  when  our  country  no  longer  feeds 
Europe,  no,  not  even  itself.  For  in  the  year  1912, 
with  its  boasted  four  billion  of  a  crop  yield, 
pointed  to  by  our  National  Agricultural  Depart- 
ment with  such  swelling  pride,  less  than  five  per 
cent,  of  our  total  exports  consisted  of  foodstuffs 
in  crude  conditions  and  food  animals. 

We  have  imported  a  dollar  and  fifteen  cents 
worth  of  food  for  every  dollar's  worth  we  have 
exported,  whether  in  a  crude  or  manufactured 
state.  Fifteen  years  ago  two-thirds  of  our  ex- 
ports were  agricultural  products.  And  in  the  year 
1912  but  one  State  east  of  the  Mississippi  Eiver 


HOW  SHALL  WE  EDUCATE  HER? 

Shall  we  educate  her  along  the  line  of  Farm  Domestic  Science, 
that  she  may  become  the  helpful  wife  of  the  "Farmer  of  To- 
morrow"? Or  shall  we  give  her  the  insipid  education  that  will 
unfit  her  for  the  serious  and  better  duties  of  life,  and  drive  her 
from  the  farm? 


NECESSAEY  PEEPAEATION        107 

produced  enough  wheat  for  its  bread,  and  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Missouri  and  Iowa 
had  to  import  wheat  for  their  bread.  For  a  pe- 
riod of  four  years  Iowa  had  grown  less  wheat 
than  her  people  have  eaten.  And  yet  we  boast 
of  agricultural  greatness. 

This  then  is  an  opportune  time  for  us  engaged 
in  the  business  of  farming  to  take  an  inventory 
to  ascertain  what  preparations  are  necessary  for 
the  proper  conduct  of  our  business  and  also  ask 
ourselves  are  we  profitably  conserving  our  raw 
material?  Are  we  profitably  utilizing  our  by- 
products and  converting  them  into  use  and 
wealth  ?  In  fine,  are  we  getting  the  very  best  out 
of  our  business?  Does  our  business  pay?  If  it 
does  not  do  these  things,  can  we  bring  about  the 
achievement  of  these  ends  and  how? 

The  author  is  sure  that  they  cannot  be  brought 
about  by  the  old  practices  of  farming  which  have 
been  the  sole  responsibility  for  our  worn  and 
worn-out  and  abandoned  soils.  There  must  be 
better  preparation  upon  the  part  of  those  engaged 
in,  or  who  are  about  to  engage  in,  the  business  of 
farming. 

Those  who  are  already  harnessed  up  to  the 
business  of  farming  must  see  the  vision  of  bet- 
ter farming.  They  must  lay  aside  the  prejudices 
and  environments  that  have  been  handed  down 
and  thrown  around  them  by  their  fathers,  re- 
membering that  their  fathers,  perhaps,  meant 
well,  because  they  had  rich  virgin  soil  at  their 
disposal  and  did  not  see  the  needs  of  soil  con- 
servation, and  enrichment  as  we  now  see  it. 

While  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  business 


108       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

of  farming  can  not  go  and  take  tlie  courses  of 
our  agricultural  colleges,  yet  the  opportunities  for 
learning  better  farming  are  now  brought  to  their 
very  doors  by  the  literature  of  our  agricultural 
experiment  stations,  farm  journals,  and  the  best 
agricultural  books  written  by  practical  men  who 
have  lived  close  to  the  soil  studying  its  whims  and 
its  needs,  and  who  give  a  **well  digested  system 
of  an  experienced  and  successful  farmer  who  has 
seen  and  practised  all  that  he  records. ' ' 

The  experiences  of  men  who  are  doing  things  in 
the  business  of  farming,  showing  its  mistakes  of 
the  past  and  its  possibilities,  are  being  recorded 
every  day  and  for  little  money  can  be  secured 
by  every  one  engaged  in  the  business  of  farming. 
And  they  can  indeed  be  made  to  illuminate  the 
path  we  are  yet  to  tread. 

The  young  men  and  women  who  are  thinking 
of  making  the  business  of  farming  their  life  work, 
have  such  opportunities  for  learning  and  master- 
ing the  business  never  possessed  by  the  young 
men  and  women  of  a  generation  ago.  The  young 
men  and  women  of  the  past  were  educated  away 
from  the  farm.  The  curriculum  of  the  schools 
did  not  even  hint  at  agricultural  education.  The 
ideals  of  the  professions  and  city  business  were 
held  up  before  them  as  the  right  ones  to  be  ob-* 
tained  and  they  caught  no  visions  of  the  business 
of  farming. 

We  have  seen  our  educational  mistakes  and  are 
fast  correcting  them.  Our  schools  and  colleges 
are  giving  agricultural  training  and  education  a 
prominent  place  in  their  curricula. 

The  general  government  and  each  state  govern- 


NECESSAEY  PEEPAEATION         109 

ment  and  corporations  are  appropriating  large 
sums  of  money  to  carry  on  the  mighty  work  of 
agricultural  education,  and  if  this  work  is  con- 
tinued with  its  present  enthusiasm,  the  day  is  not 
far  distant  when  the  worn,  worn-out  and  aban- 
doned soils  will  be  no  longer  our  possessions,  but 
simply  matters  of  history. 

Therefore,  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter 
of  preparation  for  the  business  of  farming  is 
more  education.  The  farmer  of  the  future  must 
be  educated  along  the  lines  of  scientific  agricul- 
ture or  the  nation  will  perish,  for  no  nation  can 
live  without  a  fertile  soil.  But  education  with- 
out practice  availeth  nothing.  We  have  reached 
that  period  in  our  agricultural  history  where  we 
must  not  only  educate  but  we  must  think,  plan 
and  put  into  action. 

In  the  matter  of  educating  the  men  past  the 
middle  age  engaged  in  the  business  of  farming, 
we  are  met  with  the  perplexing  problem  of  stolid 
indifference  to  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from 
agricultural  education.  The  adage  that  **you 
can  not  teach  an  old  dog  new  tricks*'  is  strongly 
exemplified  in  this  class  of  farmers.  They 
learned  processes  and  methods  of  farming  under 
conditions  that  made  these  processes  and  methods 
fairly  successful,  for  the  soil  was  favorable  to 
their  adaptation.  But  now  under  changed  soil 
conditions  these  men  resent  and  will  not  adopt  the 
processes  and  methods  necessary  for  the  success- 
ful cultivation  of  our  soils  as  we  now  find  them, 
simply  because  an  environment  has  cast  over 
these  men  the  magic  spell  of  prejudice  and  inac- 
tion.   About  all  we  can  do  with  this  class  is  to 


110       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

exclaim,  ^'Ephraim  is  joined  to  idols:  let  Hm 
alone."  Our  hope  lies  in  **tlie  farmer  of  to- 
morrow," our  young  men  and  women.  While 
we  can  do  much  with  the  middle  aged  men  and 
women  engaged  in  the  business  of  farming,  our 
chief  hope  is  with  the  young  men  and  women,  and 
they  are  already  being  intensely  interested  in 
this  education,  for  thousands  of  them  in  all  parts 
of  our  country  are  not  only  receiving  this  educa- 
tion, but  are  putting  it  into  practice,  and  the  re- 
sults of  this  educating  process  are  astounding, 
for  in  Indiana  and  other  com  states,  yields  of 
corn  have  been  increased  from  twenty  to  sixty, 
one  hundred  or  more  bushels  to  the  acre,  and  even 
in  Texas,  not  considered  strictly  in  the  corn  belt, 
the  average  yield  of  com  per  acre  has  been  in- 
creased from  sixteen  bushels  to  fifty-one  bushels, 
and  their  cotton  crop  has  been  increased  from 
one-third  of  a  bale  to  one  and  four-hundredths 
bales  to  the  acre,  all  accomplished  by  these  young 
men  and  women.  Mighty,  then,  is  agricultural 
education  and  training,  and  it  must  be  set  down 
as  the  main  thing  necessary  in  the  preparation 
for  the  business  of  farming. 


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CHAPTEE  Vni 

PUTTING   THE   SOIL   IN    CONDITION    FOB   CAEBYING   ON 
THE   BUSINESS   OF   FABMING 

HAVING  made  the  necessary  preparation  for 
carrying  on  the  business  of  fanning,  and 
possessing  the  necessary  equipment  for  the  busi- 
ness, the  next  step  is  the  putting  of  the  soil  in 
condition  for  the  breaking  plow.  This  means  that 
the  soil  must  be  cleared  and  drained.  In  the  tim- 
ber belt  the  great  majority  of  our  soils  have  al- 
ready been  cleared  of  their  timber  growth  and  are 
under  cultivation.  The  uncleared  soils  of  Amer- 
ica suitable  for  cultivation,  while  not  of  vast  area, 
present  the  perplexing  problems  of  clearing,  for 
to  remove  from  them  the  stumps  and  tree  growth 
means  the  expenditure  of  brawn  and  money.  In 
the  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  cut-over  pine  and 
hardwood  districts,  we  have  the  pine  stumps  that 
never  rot,  which  can  only  be  successfully  removed 
by  the  power  of  the  stump  puller.  And  the  hard- 
wood stumps  and  second  growth  of  timber  must 
mainly  be  removed  by  the  same  power,  so  the 
cost  of  clearing  each  acre  of  said  lands  for  the 
plow  is  often  as  much  as  $50. 

It  would  be  equally  expensive  to  clear  hard- 
wood lands  if  the  stumps  were  not  generally  al- 
lowed to  rot  out.  In  many  sections  of  our  coun- 
try the  soils  are  covered  with  the  glacial  drift  of 

111 


112       THE  BUSINESS  OE  FAEMING 

rocks  that  require  strength  and  money  to  remove. 
If  any  of  these  lands  are  swampy,  the  additional 
expense  of  drainage  must  be  applied  to  them.  In 
fine,  both  our  new  timber  and  prairie  lands  must 
be  drained  before  they  are  fit  for  cultivation. 

Our  soils  which  have  been  subjected  to  cultiva- 
tion for  a  period  of  years,  if  care  has  not  been 
used  to  keep  them  filled  with  organic  matter,  be- 
come compact,  and  so  are  not  sufficiently  ven- 
tilated for  the  successful  growing  of  crops  in 
them.  It  is  necessary  that  these  soils  be  ditched 
so  that  ventilation  for  the  soil  be  secured.  It  is 
now  a  settled  fact  that  plant  roots  breathe;  that 
free  oxygen  must  reach  them  or  the  plants  perish. 
Oxygen  must  freely  reach  the  seed  in  the  soil  or 
we  do  not  get  the  healthy  growth.  Soil  ventila- 
tion produces  the  necessary  nitrates  in  the  soil 
and  prevents  also  their  destruction. 

The  soil  must  be  properly  ventilated  that  soil 
bacteria  may  live  and  perform  their  function  of 
changing  the  nitrogen  of  decaying  organic  mat- 
ter into  a  form  suitable  for  plant  food.  Drain- 
age is  one  of  the  chief  aids  to  accomplish  this  end. 
Drainage  conserves  moisture,  promotes  soil 
ventilation  and  gives  soil  the  proper  temperature. 

In  the  restoration  of  worn  and  worn-out  soils 
drainage  in  one  of  the  main  remedies  that  must 
be  employed.  And  here  at  this  point  it  is  well 
for  a  brief  period  to  wait  upon  the  soil  doctor 
and  get  his  ideas  of  putting  the  soil  in  condition 
for  the  carrying  on  of  the  business  of  farming. 

"When  our  bodies  become  diseased  we  call  the 
physician  who,  in  our  judgment,  *^has  rare  skill 
in  diagnostics,"  who  by  critical  perception  and 


PUTTING  THE  SOIL  IN  CONDITION     113 

scrutiny  discovers  signs  and  symptoms  upon 
which  he  bases  his  judgment  as  to  the  disease 
that  has  made  us  sick,  and  the  remedy  to  be  ap- 
plied. 

The  same  principle  must  be  applied  to  the 
diagnosis  of  our  soils  which  have  lost  their  crop 
producing  power,  to  ascertain  the  nature  and  ex- 
tent of  its  ills  and  the  remedy  to  be  applied. 

The  skilled  physician  knows  the  very  structure 
of  the  human  body  and  the  tissues  that  make  it 
up.  He  knows  its  origin,  the  conditions  that 
enhance  or  retard  its  growth,  and  the  food  needed 
to  sustain  it.  It  would  therefore  seem  that  he 
who  seeks  to  cure  the  diseases  of  our  worn  and 
worn-out  soils  must  possess  some  skill  as  a  *^soil 
doctor'';  that  he  should  know  the  very  origin  of 
soil;  that  soil  is  that  upper  stratum  of  the  earth's 
surface  composed  of  substances  which  furnish 
food  for  plant  growth;  that  soil  was  produced  or 
made  up  by  the  wearing  down  or  decay  and  dis- 
solution of  rocks,  the  washing  of  sand  and  decay 
of  vegetable  or  organic  matter;  and  he  too  must 
know  the  food  it  needs  to  make  it  fertile. 

The  writer  does  not  believe  that  in  order  to  be- 
come a  *'soil  doctor"  it  is  necessary  that  one 
should  become  skilled  in  the  science  of  chemistry 
or  other  sciences.  Eather  he  should  become  the 
student  of  Nature,  sit  at  her  feet  and  observe 
her  ways. 

While  the  study  of  the  sciences  may  teach  us 
that  the  three  elements  of  potash,  phosphorus 
and  nitrogen  are  necessary  to  make  fertile  soils; 
that  these  elements  are  vitally  necessary  because 
they  increase  the  quality,  fruitfulness,  early  ma- 


114       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

turity  and  growth  of  plants ;  that  nitrogen  is  the 
^^most  precious,  the  most  important  and  the  most 
costly/'  and  the  element  soonest  farmed  out  of 
our  soils,  yet  when  we  become  nature  students, 
use  our  brains,  closely  observe  the  structure  of 
soils,  we  find  that  the  new,  rich  organic  soils  just 
reclaimed  from  the  wilderness  of  tree  and  plant 
growth  are  filled  with  decayed  and  decaying  trees, 
underbrush,  roots  and  grasses;  that  these  sub- 
stances decaying,  become  the  organic  matter  of 
the  soil  upon  which  the  soil  bacteria  feed,  and 
these  substances  decayed,  or  what  is  left  of  them 
after  the  decaying  process,  become  the  humus  of 
the  soil,  thus  making  up  and  constituting  two  soil 
elements  so  necessary  to  make  it  fertile  and  bear 
its  burden  of  crops. 

The  nature  student  when  called  upon  to  act 
in  the  capacity  of  *^soil  doctor"  and  to  diagnose 
sick  soils — soils  that  no  longer  produce  paying 
crops,  like  the  skilled  physician,  quickly  perceives 
that  these  sick,  worn,  and  worn-out  soils,  have 
become  sick  because  their  supplies  of  organic 
matter,  humus  and  nitrogen,  have  been  consumed. 
He  discovers  that  while  they  may  possess  in 
available  form  the  mineral  elements  necessary 
for  the  proper  working  of  their  functions,  yet 
they  lack  the  elements  of  organic  matter,  humus 
and  nitrogen  in  sufficient  quantities  so  that  they 
will  become  a  favorable  home  for  soil  bacteria 
who  compound  plant  food  so  that  plants  may  not 
only  grow,  and  bear  their  burden  of  crops,  but 
will  also  release  and  make  available  these  mineral 
elements  in  the  soil  to  furnish  food  for  future 
plant  growth. 


PUTTING  THE  SOIL  IN  CONDITION     115 

After  all  that  can  be  said  *'soil  doctoring"  is 
but  the  application  of  simple  common  sense.  We 
must  use  our  *^ thinkers"  and  faculties  of  observa- 
tion. When  we  do  this  we  will  catch  on  to  Na- 
ture's ways  of  soil  building  and  soil  restoration, 
and,  imitating  her,  we  will  not  only  maintain  soil 
fertility,  but  will  restore  our  bleak,  barren  soils, 
made  so  by  sordid  tillage.  Acting  then  along  this 
line,  he  who  runs  must  read  in  Nature 's  Book  the 
living  truth  that  when  Nature  built  the  original 
soil  she  used  a  lavish  supply  of  organic  matter 
in  its  construction.  She  took  the  rock  particles 
of  the  soil  which  contained  the  mineral  elements 
of  phosphorus,  potassium,  magnesium,  calcium, 
iron,  etc.,  and  by  the  growth  of  certain  plants, 
grasses  and  trees  in  the  soil,  she  put  these  mineral 
elements  to  work,  and  they  became  mixed  with  the 
roots,  bodies,  limbs,  leaves  and  stems  of  these 
plants,  grasses,  and  trees,  which  form  the  or- 
ganic matter  of  the  soil,  which  held  moisture  and 
gave  the  soil  its  necessary  ventilation.  Then  Na- 
ture created  the  soil  bacteria,  the  mighty  little 
chemical  workers  of  the  soil,  who,  attacking  this 
organic  matter,  broke  it  down  and  in  their  labora- 
tories worked  it  up  into  not  only  plant  food,  but 
into  the  humus  of  the  soil  which  acts  as  a  water 
reservoir  for  plants,  improves  the  physical 
condition  of  the  soil  and  regulates  soil  tempera- 
ture. 

Nature's  processes  of  soil  building  are  so  sim- 
ple and  yet  complicated  in  this,  that  while  we  can 
not  fathom  the  mystery  of  plant  growth  by  which 
two  plants  growing  side  by  side  in  the  same  char- 
acter of  soil,  kissed  by  the  same  sunshine  and 


116       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

nourished  by  the  same  rains,  the  one  plant  will 
seem  to  poison  the  soil  and  rob  it  of  its  fertility, 
and  the  other  plant,  while  taking  from  the  soil 
all  the  elements  it  needs  for  fruitful  growth,  gives 
back  to  the  soil  more  fertility  than  it  consumes, 
yet  we  can  if  we  will,  observe  the  phenomena  of 
plant  life  and  growth,  and  grow  as  much  as  pos- 
sible of  those  plants  that  build  up  the  soil. 

Nature,  having  built  the  original  soil  by  a  lav- 
ish use  of  organic  matter,  man,  when  he  brought 
it  into  cultivation  began  to  grow  upon  it  those 
crops  for  gain,  which,  as  we  have  said,  never  give 
to  the  soil  any  fertility  in  compensation  for  the 
food  they  take  from  the  soil  to  build  them  up  and 
ripen  their  harvest  of  fruit  or  grain.  The  soil 
being  new  and  fertile  the  harvest  of  these  crops 
was  large,  the  husbandman  waxed  fat  from  their 
sale,  the  avarice  of  greed  became  a  passion,  so 
year  by  year  the  husbandman  continued  the 
growing  of  these  crops  so  that  the  soil  was  slowly 
but  surely  mined  of  its  fertility,  but  it  resented 
its  treatment,  inflicted  the  awful  punishment  of 
withdrawing  its  bounty  and  became  the  sick 
worn-out  soil  found  not  only  on  the  abandoned 
farm,  but  in  all  parts  of  our  Union. 
•  So  when  the  **soil  doctor"  was  called  upon  to 
the  diagnosis  of  this  worn  soil,  to  fathom  its  ills 
and  prescribe  a  course  of  treatment,  he  found  it 
stripped  of  its  organic  matter  and  humus.  It 
was  cold,  compact,  without  capacity  for  ventila- 
tion. Soil  bacteria  had  abandoned  it  because  it 
furnished  no  food  for  their  maintenance,  nor  fa- 
vorable environment  for  their  existence.  He 
found  it  but  a  soil  skeleton  stripped  of  its  flesh, 


PUTTING  THE  SOIL  IN  CONDITION     117 

that  could  not  grow  the  common  growth  of  weeds, 
let  alone  the  **foodful  ear.'' 

The  first  step  towards  the  restoration  of  these 
conditions  to  the  soil  is  to  ventilate  the  soil,  for 
plant  roots  must  breathe  to  live  as  well  as  man. 
Close,  compact,  non-porous  soil  without  organic 
matter  or  humus  is  a  dead  soil.  It  becomes  a 
house  without  ventilation  in  which  no  plant  roots 
can  properly  breathe  or  secure  the  free  oxygen 
necessary  for  the  plant's  growth  and  proper  de- 
velopment. 

This  soil  ventilation  is  secured  first  by  drain- 
age. The  principle  of  drainage  is  that  it  opens 
up  the  pores  of  the  soils  so  that  water  and  air 
can  percolate  through  them,  and  when  soil  pores 
are  open  for  the  free  passage  of  air  and  water 
they  become  a  home  where  plant  roots  may  not 
only  breathe,  but  strike  deep  and  become  safe 
from  droughts  as  well  as  floods;  where  soil  bac- 
teria may  live  and  work  out  their  laboratory 
problems  of  compounding  food  for  plants,  and 
cleansing  soil  of  its  offensive  accumulations.  The 
*  *  soil  doctor ' '  who  does  not  prescribe  a  large  dose 
of  drainage  for  worn  and  worn-out  soils  will  surely 
fail  to  cure  his  patient.  For  drainage  is  surely 
the  ** first  and  most  important  aid  to  the  injured," 
in  worn  and  worn-out  soil  treatment. 

The  dose  of  drainage  having  been  properly  ad- 
ministered, the  next  step  in  the  course  of  treat- 
ment is  the  securing  to  the  soil  organic  matter  and 
humus.  Applying  these  two  elements  to  worn 
and  worn-out  soils,  not  only  aids  in  securing  soil 
ventilation,  but  absorbs  vast  quantities  of  water 
to  be  held  and  supplied  to  growing  plants  when 


118       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

needed,  furnislies  the  food  for  germ  life  and  bac- 
teria, the  food  for  plant  growth,  and  releases  and 
makes  available  the  minerals  bound  np  in  the  rock 
particles  of  the  soil. 

Like  the  soil  medicine  of  drainage,  the  medicine 
of  organic  matter  and  humns  must  be  prescribed 
in  big  doses  for  sick,  worn,  and  worn-out  soils. 
It  is  the  soil  medicine  that  cannot  in  this  age  be 
given  in  over  doses.  True,  Nature  ** overdosed" 
it  in  some  instances,  as  in  the  case  of  muck  soils 
where  organic  matter  and  humus  were  given  to 
the  soil  for  ages,  and  when  no  greedy  farmer  was 
near  to  consume  these  soil  elements  by  the  grow- 
ing of  those  gainful  crops  which  feed  upon  and 
consume  them. 

The  next  dose  of  '*soil  medicine"  to  be  admin- 
istered is  *^ proper  plowing  of  the  soil."  Like  the 
ancient  farmer,  to-day  many  of  the  farmers  of 
the  old  countries  scratch  the  soil  with  a  crooked 
stick  and  call  it  plowing.  Even  many  of  the  farm- 
ers of  our  country  with  their  new  and  most  mod- 
ern styles  of  plows  scratch  their  soils  three  or  four 
inches  deep  and  encourage  themselves  with  the 
thought  that  they  are  really  plowing  the  soil. 

Nature's  plows  are  the  roots  of  plants  and 
trees,  and  with  these  plows  she  stirs  and  mixes 
the  soil  to  a  great  depth,  and  more  effectively  than 
man  with  his  most  modern  plows,  and  she  never 
plows  the  soil  in  an  improper  condition. 

The  object  to  be  secured  in  plowing  is  to  so  stir 
the  soil  in  its  right  stage  so  that  the  organic  mat- 
ter and  humus  will  be  mixed  with  the  rock  particles 
of  the  soil  that  a  deep  seed  bed  be  obtained,  so  that 
the  storage  capacity  for  water  in  the  soil  will  be 


PUTTING  THE  SOIL  IN  CONDITION     119 

increased,  and  the  securing  of  a  seed  bed  most 
favorable  for  the  growth  of  plants;  and  such  a 
seed  bed  is  one  that  holds  sufficient  moisture,  air 
and  heat,  that  chemical  and  germ  action  will  take 
place  therein,  that  plant  food  be  prepared  for 
growing  crops. 

There  are  times  when  the  doctor  of  human  ills 
requires  his  patients  to  wrap  themselves  with 
quilts  and  comforts  that  all  parts  of  their  bodies 
may  be  protected  from  drafts  that  certain  con- 
ditions may  be  obtained  so  that  the  medicine  ad- 
ministered to  the  patient  may  be  efficacious.  It 
is  the  same  with  soil  doctoring.  Sick  soils  need 
to  be  covered  with  cover  crops  so  that  certain  con- 
ditions necessary  to  soil  maintenance  and  restora- 
tion be  obtained.  Nature  is  a  lavish  user  of  cover 
crops  and  is  persistent  in  her  efforts  to  cover 
naked  soils  by  the  growth  of  weeds,  grasses  and 
trees,  thus  teaching  us  a  valuable  lesson  in  soil 
covering. 

A  cover  crop  is  one  like  grass,  rye,  clover,  vetch, 
hungarian,  buckwheat,  or  any  close  lying  herbage 
and  thickly  rooted  plant,  whose  mission  is  to  pre- 
vent soil  from  washing,  blowing  away,  puddling 
and  cracking,  and  to  prevent  ammonia  wastes  by 
evaporation  and  the  loss  of  nitrogen ;  and  its  fur- 
ther mission  is  to  produce  the  mellow  texture  of 
the  soil  and  to  bring  about  all  those  conditions 
characteristic  of  new  and  virgin  soils.  Like  the 
doses  of  drainage,  organic  matter,  plowing,  etc., 
the  dose  of  cover  crops  must  be  large  or  the  **soil 
doctor ' '  will  see  but  little  improvement  in  his  pa- 
tient of  sick  soil. 

The  **soil  doctor,/'  while  administering  all  the 


120       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

doses  mentioned,  can  greatly  aid  his  patient  in 
recovering  its  strength  by  administering  ground 
rock  phosphate  and  limestone,  nitrate  of  soda,  and 
potash,  which,  if  given  in  right  quantities,  will  so 
stimulate  the  soil  that  it  will  better  assimilate  the 
medicine  of  drainage,  organic  matter,  plowing 
and  soil  covering. 

The  most  important  method  of  treatment  and 
medicines  to  be  administered  have  been  given  for 
the  treatment  of  sick  soils.  And  the  use  of  this 
method  of  treatment  and  the  application  of  these 
remedies  is  the  true  and  only  remedy  for  the  dis- 
ease of  our  soils.  It  is  the  only  treatment  and 
remedy  for  soil  maintenance,  and  any  other  treat- 
ment and  remedies  which  do  not  embody  these  are 
but  the  nostrums  and  patent  medicine  remedies 
of  the  quack  soil  doctor,  the  use  of  which  will  not 
only  make  the  patient  more  ill  and  diseased,  but 
will  ultimately  lead  to  his  death. 

When  the  soil  patient  has  recovered  and  the 
tissues  of  its  body  have  been  rebuilt  and  its 
strength  has  come  back  so  that  it  again  takes  up 
its  burden  of  bearing  crops,  we  must  continue 
giving  it  the  medicine  of  drainage,  organic  matter, 
plowing,  etc.,  as  a  food,  for  the  soil  as  well  as  man 
and  beast  must  be  fed,  and  to  assist  it  in  assimilat- 
ing its  food  it  must  be  groomed  by  proper  cultiva- 
tion, crop  rotation,  etc.,  for  soil  will  resent  mis- 
treatment in  these  respects,  as  well  as  the  mis- 
treatment of  withholding  from  it  drainage,  organic 
matter,  etc.  Soil  will  surely  respond  and  give  its 
best  to  him  who  feeds  it,  properly  tends  it,  grows 
different  crops  upon  it  each  year,  and  keeps  stock 


PUTTING  THE  SOIL  IN  CONDITION     121 

from  tramping  out  its  life  in  the  fall,  winter  and 
spring  seasons  of  the  year. 

It  will  not  be  amiss  to  say  something  about  the 
method  of  applying  these  different  soil  medicines, 
and  how  they  may  be  procured. 

As  to  drainage  there  can  hardly  be  too  much  of 
it,  and  it  should  be  done  even  in  the  absence  of 
water  upon  the  soil,  for  we  have  shown  that  its 
object  is  not  only  to  remove  water  but  to  get  air 
into  the  soil. 

Drains  should  be  constructed  of  porous  tile, 
preferably  cement,  not  less  than  six  inches  in  di- 
ameter, laid  at  a  proper  depth,  and  so  constructed 
that  both  ends  of  drains  will  be  open,  and  if  of 
any  length,  manholes  with  iron  open  tops  should 
be  constructed  near  the  center  of  the  main  ditch 
line,  which  will  secure  the  quick  passage  of  water, 
preventing  the  deposit  of  sediment  in  the  tile  that 
always  occurs  when  water  saturated  with  soil  sedi- 
ment slowly  passes  through  tile.  And  drains  con- 
structed in  this  manner  admit  the  free  passage 
of  air  through  them,  and  open  up  spaces  or  pores 
in  the  soil  for  passage  of  air  and  water,  and  thus 
perfect  soil  ventilation  is  secured. 

The  securing  of  a  supply  and  application  of 
organic  matter  and  humus  to  worn  soil  is  not  so 
dijBfieult  as  it  may  seem.  It  can  be  secured  by  con- 
serving and  plowing  under  of  weeds  that  escape 
cultivation,  cornstalks  and  application  of  barn- 
yard manure.  But  supplies  of  these  three  are 
never  secured  in  sufficient  quantities  on  any  soil 
to  supply  the  need  of  organic  matter  and  fur- 
ther and  more  adequate  supplies  must  be  obtained 


122       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

elsewhere,  but  these  can  always  be  supplied  in 
abundance  on  worn  and  worn-out  soils  by  the 
growing  of  such  green  manuring  crops  as  rye, 
vetch  and  sweet  clover  which  are  three  plants  that 
will  grow  abundant  supplies  of  organic  matter 
even  on  the  poorest  of  soils,  and  when  the  supplies 
of  organic  matter  which  they  produce  are  incor- 
porated into  the  soil,  the  clovers  and  other  green 
manuring  crops  can  be  freely  grown. 

Eye  and  vetch  are  truly  the  poor  man's  green 
manuring  crops,  because  they  can  be  planted  and 
grown  between  seasons,  that  is,  after  the  laying 
by  of  the  corn,  cotton  or  other  crop,  and  will  be 
ready  to  plow  into  the  soil  in  the  spring  at  planting 
time,  thus  preventing  him  the  loss  of  a  crop  for 
gain,  for  he  is  in  that  condition  where  he  cannot 
aiford  to  miss  for  a  single  year  the  growing  of  a 
crop  for  profit  or  food. 

Every  tiller  of  the  soil  is  a  plowman  and  he 
plows  that  he  may  sow  and  reap  an  abundant 
harvest  of  crops,  yet  how  few  tillers  of  soil  under- 
stand the  true  art  of  plowing  so  that  abundant 
harvest  of  crops  can  be  secured.  The  true  art  of 
plowing  consists  simply  in  plowing  the  soil  when 
it  is  dry  enough  so  that  the  plow  in  passing 
through  the  soil  will  not  press  together  the  soil 
grains  under  the  plow  and  make  a  compact  stratum 
of  earth  below  the  soil  turned  under  which  pre- 
vents the  rising  of  moisture  when  needed  by  the 
growing  plants,  and  so  that  a  deep  well  turned 
seed  bed  can  be  secured. 

When  the  weeds,  cornstalks,  barnyard  manure, 
etc.,  are  put  upon  the  soil  to  remain  untouched 
during  the  rest  seasons  of  the  year,  and  those 


PUTTING  THE  SOIL  IN  CONDITION     123 

crops  are  planted  in  the  fall  that  produce  the 
heavy  supplies  of  organic  matter  for  the  soil,  we 
have  then  secured  the  soil  covering,  the  importance 
of  which  has  heen  shown. 

The  soil  remedies  herein  detailed  by  the  soil 
doctor  for  the  treatment  of  worn  and  worn-out 
soils,  the  most  vital  disease  of  our  nation,  are  safe 
and  sure.  They  are  not  new  and  untried  remedies 
or  nostrums,  they  are  Nature's  remedies  and  have 
been  known  to  agriculture  for  ages.  By  their  use 
England  restored  her  worn  soils  and  made  them 
increase  their  productive  power  nearly  four-fold, 
and  the  agriculturalists  of  old  Eome  administered 
them  to  its  soil  at  the  time  it  was  noted  for  its 
high  state  of  agriculture. 

Germany  for  the  past  ten  years  by  their  use 
has  made  her  potato  crop  average  200  bushels  per 
acre,  while  the  United  States  by  their  non-use 
has  made  but  an  average  of  93  bushels  to  the  acre. 

In  England  and  Scotland  there  are  tenant  farm- 
ers to-day  who  pay  high  rents  for  land,  as  much 
as  $20  per  acre,  feed  the  land  like  they  do  their 
bullocks,  and  the  food  we  mention,  even  at  a  cost 
of  more  than  $100  per  acre,  and  yet  have  made 
fortunes  from  their  rented  land,  and  one  instance 
is  given  where  one  of  those  tenant  farmers  has 
made  a  fortune  of  a  quarter  of  million  dollars, 
lives  in  a  fine  mansion  ''with  servants,  beauti- 
fully kept  lawns,  parks  and  gardens,  with  all  kinds 
of  fruits  and  flowers,  and  a  conservatory  for  grow- 
ing hot  house  plants  and  fruits  out  of  season. ' ' 

And  there  are  scores  of  other  tenants  in  this 
land  who  are  making  money  and  enjoying  all  the 
comforts  of  life,  who  have  learned  the  true  art  of 


124       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

feeding  the  soil,  tliat  the  soil,  responsive  as  a  hu- 
man being  when  caressed  by  the  hand  of  love, 
pours  out  its  crop  wealth  into  the  hand  that  treats 
it  well. 

And  there  are  men  in  our  land  who  have  also 
learned  how  to  cure  the  diseases  of  our  soils  and 
the  true  art  of  feeding  them,  and  the  soil  respon- 
sive of  its  good  treatment  is  rewarding  these  men 
with  bumper  crops. 


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CHAPTER  IX 

PLOWING 

SOMETHING  has  already  been  said  about 
plowing,  but  the  subject  should  be  further 
discussed  as  it  is  the  most  important  adjunct  to 
the  business  of  farming. 

A  plow  has  been  defined  as  a  well  known  imple- 
ment drawn  by  horses,  mules,  oxen  or  other  power, 
for  turning  up  the  soil  to  prepare  it  for  growing 
crops. 

TuU,  an  agricultural  writer  of  the  long  ago,  said, 
'^Writing  and  plowing  are  two  different  talents, 
and  he  that  writes  well  must  have  spent  in  study 
that  time  which  is  necessary  to  be  spent  in  the 
fields  by  him  who  will  be  master  of  the  art  of 
cultivating  them.  To  write,  then,  effectively  of 
plowing,  one  must  not  be  qualified  to  write  learn- 
edly.'' 

As  the  author  does  not  deem  himself  qualified 
to  write  learnedly  of  plowing,  he  does  believe, 
however,  that  he  can  write  with  some  effect  upon 
the  art  of  plowing,  for  he  first  learned  the  art 
holding  the  plow  handles  of  a  walking  plow  upon 
the  pioneer  farm  of  his  father,  among  the  stumps 
of  the  newly  cleared  timber  soils,  and  his  fondest 
and  sorest  memories  are  of  those  youthful  plow- 
ing days.  Fondest,  because  they  were  the  halcyon 
days  of  youth,  the  glorious  springtime  of  our 

125 


126       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

lives ;  sorest,  because  in  following  the  plow  among 
the  stumps  of  the  **clearinV'  the  plow  point  would 
catch  on  the  long  elm  roots,  the  ends  of  which 
would  give  away  through  the  force  of  pulling 
horses,  relieving  the  tension,  as  it  were,  allow- 
ing the  roots  to  fly  back  and  whack  him  over  the 
shins,  which  not  only  led  to  a  copious  flow  of  tears, 
but  also  to  a  copious  flow  of  language,  not  such, 
however,  that  is  used  by  a  pious,  Methodist  dea- 
con, and  which  stimulated  dreams  of  a  city  life. 

In  the  author's  day  the  breaking  plow  has  evo- 
luted  from  the  walking  two-horse  plow,  to  the 
riding  single  ajid  gang  plows  and  the  modem 
tractor  plows,  pulling  their  three,  six,  eight,  twelve 
or  more,  bottoms. 

The  ancient  husbandman  scratched  his  soil  with 
a  crooked  stick,  because  he  had  or  knew  no  better 
method  of  preparing  his  soil  for  growing  crops. 
In  the  progress  of  time  there  was  evolution  in  the 
art  of  building  plows,  just  as  there  has  been  evo- 
lution in  other  things.  We  smile  when  we  look 
at  the  pictures  of  plows  used  by  our  ancestors, 
and,  no  doubt,  future  generations  will  do  the  same 
thing  when  they  look  at  the  pictures  of  our  most 
modern  plows. 

In  the  times  of  Nero,  in  parts  of  the  world  de- 
voted to  agriculture,  it  was  a  common  sight  to 
see  a  wretched  ass  and  an  old  woman  hitched  to 
their  crude  plows,  preparing  the  soil  the  best  they 
could  with  such  means  for  the  seed  bed,  which  was 
nothing  more  than  a  slight  stirring  of  the  soil. 
And  even  in  this  day  there  are  countries  in  Eu- 
rope in  which  plowing  is  done  by  the  crude  method 
of  a  straight  piece  of  wood  with  an  iron  point  to 


PLOWING  127 

which  is  attached  a  handle  and  device  for  hitch- 
ing the  power  to  move  it.  To  this  plow  the  hus- 
bandman hitches  a  mule  or  a  buffalo  which  is  led 
back  and  forth  across  the  field  by  his  wife,  while 
he  holds  the  plow  into  the  ground  the  best  he  can. 

We  have  already  recited  the  incident  of  the 
early  American  colonists  scratching  their  soils 
with  crude  plows,  and  because  they  could  not  plow 
to  any  depth  with  them,  became  imbued  with  the 
idea  that  deep  plowing  injured  the  soil. 

We,  the  descendants  of  those  colonists  are 
surely  victims  of  heredity,  because  this  same  false 
notion  exists  to-day  and  must  have  come  to  us  by 
inheritance  and  is  practiced  by  agriculturists  to 
an  extent  alarming  to  him  who  has  made  any  in- 
vestigation of  modern  plowing. 

For  several  years  the  author  has  made  a  care- 
ful investigation  of  plowing  as  practiced  in  the 
rich  corn  belt  of  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  other  States. 
He  has  taken  measurements  of  the  depth  of  plow- 
ing upon  all  kinds  of  soils,  with  all  kinds  and  makes 
of  modern  plows,  from  the  walking  breaking  plow, 
to  the  largest  modern  tractor,  and  his  computa- 
tion of  the  average  depth  of  plowing  has  revealed 
the  startling  fact  that  plowing  in  the  locality  men- 
tioned rarely  exceeds  an  average  depth  of  more 
than  three  and  one-half  inches. 

Investigating  further  as  to  the  cause  or  reasons 
for  such  shallow  plowing,  he  has  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  conditions  that  have  led  up  to  or 
caused  so  shallow  a  plowing  of  the  soil  have  gen- 
erally been  an  insufficiency  of  motive  power,  or 
power  to  pull  the  plows,  and  this  insufficiency  of 
power  applies  to  every  kind  and  make  of  plow, 


128       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

whether  moved  by  horse,  steam  or  gasoline 
power. 

Most  farmers  want  to  plow  deeper,  and  many- 
are  deluded  into  believing  that  they  are  plowing 
deep  enough,  for  they  never  measure  with  a  rule 
the  depth  they  are  plowing,  and  to  attempt  to 
measure  the  depth  of  plowing  with  the  eye  is  de- 
ceptive. It  takes  power  to  move  any  plow  five 
or  more  inches  in  depth  through  our  soils  of  to- 
day, for  they  are  closer  and  more  compact  than 
they  were  when  filled  with  organic  matter. 

Plowing  for  the  seed  bed  is  done  mostly  in  the 
spring  of  the  year,  when  horses  have  just  passed 
through  their  period  of  winter  rest  and  are  un- 
used to  the  hard  work  required  for  plowing.  They 
are  in  that  period  which  the  farmer  calls  *  *  soft. ' ' 
Their  muscles  are  relaxed  and  need  to  be  tough- 
ened, and  instead  of  preparing  the  horse  for  this 
hard,  laborious  work,  by  a  practice  of  lighter 
work,  he  is  put  to  the  plow  early  in  the  spring  and, 
it  being  the  *  *  rush  season, '  *  when  the  spring  plow- 
ing must  be  done  quickly  so  that  the  seed  may  be 
planted  in  due  time,  the  horse  is  pushed  to  his 
limit.  And  to  relieve  his  burden,  the  farmer 
raises  the  devices  upon  his  plow  that  regulate  the 
depth  of  plowing,  and  shallow  plowing  becomes 
the  rule  upon  the  average  farm. 

Eecently  the  author  went  into  a  field  where  a 
farmer  had  two  light  horses,  neither  weighing 
over  1200  pounds,  hitched  to  a  common  walking 
plow.  He  was  attempting  to  plow  a  stiff  soil, 
deficient  in  any  loosening  matter.  It  was  cold, 
compact,  and  within  less  than  a  depth  of  three  and 
a  half  inches,  had  not  been  broken  for  a  long 


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PLOWING  129 

series  of  years,  and  so  was  like  hard  pan.  It  was 
that  undercnist  of  soil  which  we  find  upon  most  of 
our  soils,  underlying  the  usual  plow  depth,  caused 
to  some  extent  by  the  passing  of  the  bottom  of 
the  mold  board  plow  through  the  soil.  This  man, 
by  actual  measurement,  was  breaking  up  this  soil 
to  an  average  depth  of  three  inches.  When  asked 
by  the  author  why  he  did  not  plow  deeper,  he  re- 
plied that  when  he  adjusted  his  plow  to  plow  a 
greater  depth,  or  so  that  it  would  penetrate  the 
hard  soil  underneath  the  depth  of  three  or  more 
inches,  his  horses  could  not  pull  the  plow.  It  was 
a  case  of  lack  of  motive  power,  so  he  set  his  plow 
to  do  shallow  plowing.  And  it  may  be  of  inter- 
est to  know  that  the  corn  grown  upon  this  shallow 
plowed  soil  did  not  average  ten  bushels  to  the 
acre. 

Experimenting  with  riding  gang  plows  of  two 
twelve-inch  bottoms,  plowing  in  average  soils  as 
to  compactness,  the  author  has  found  that  such 
plows,  plowing  to  a  depth  of  five,  or  six  inches,  can 
be  easily  drawn  by  four  average  farm  horses ;  but 
when  set  to  plow  seven,  eight,  or  nine  inches,  the 
minimum  depth  to  which  any  soils  should  be 
plowed,  the  drawing  of  these  plows  becomes  a  dif- 
ficult task. 

In  the  past  five  or  six  years  the  author  has  ex- 
perimented with,  and  has  investigated  the  break- 
ing of  the  soil  with  modem  gasoline  and  steam 
tractor  plows,  and  he  has  found  the  same  condi- 
tion to  obtain  with  most  every  one  of  these  plows 
that  he  has  operated  upon  his  farms,  or  seen  op- 
erated. As  long  as  their  plows  were  adjusted  to 
plow  five  or  six  inches  in  depth,  their  engines 


130       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

pulled  their  loads  easily  and  economically  as  to 
fuel  and  operating  expenses,  but  when  greater 
depths  of  plowing  were  required,  say  nine  or  ten 
inches,  then  most  of  these  plowing  outfits  were 
even  unable  to  pull  their  loads,  or  if  they  did,  it 
was  at  too  great  expense  for  fuel,  or  too  slow  a 
speed  for  economy.    Yet  some  were  a  success. 

Eecently  the  author  went  to  a  State  adjoining 
the  one  in  which  he  resides  to  see  the  operation  of 
a  large  and  much  advertised  gasoline  tractor, 
with  an  eight  twelve-inch  bottom  plowing  outfit. 
It  was  plowing  an  old  blue  grass  pasture  field 
and  the  sod  was  heavy.  They  attempted  to  plow 
this  heavy  sod  with  the  eight  bottoms  at  an  aver- 
age depth  of  five  inches,  and  failed.  They  took 
off  one  bottom  and  again  failed.  Another  bottom 
was  removed  with  like  failure,  until  finally,  pull- 
ing ^ve  bottoms,  they  could  make  fair  progress. 
But  the  job  of  plowing  was  such  that  the  sod  was. 
not  overturned  to  a  sufficient  depth,  and  the  soil 
was  so  broken  up  that  the  sod  would  not  be  wiell 
turned  under  so  it  would  be  destroyed  or  would 
so  rot  that  the  blue  grass  would  be  killed  and  the 
field  be  put  in  fit  condition  for  cultivation. 

But  why  do  we  plow?  To  loosen  up  the  soil 
and  prepare  a  seed  bed  in  which  plants  will  grow 
and  develop  and  reproduce  their  kind. 

The  proper  development  of  the  plant  into  that 
condition  that  will  cause  it  to  give  its  maximum 
yield  of  matured  fruit,  grain  and  produce,  is  the 
consummation  desired  by  every  one  who  tills  the 
soil,  but  plants  will  not  do  this  unless  the  seed 
from  which  they  sprang  has  been  sown  in  a 
properly  prepared  seed  bed  which  is  stocked  with 


PLOWING  131 

fertility  so  the  plant  will  have  the  elements  that 
feed  it,  and  the  loosened  soil  that  can  be  success- 
fully cultivated,  and  in  which  the  plant  can  de- 
velop its  root  system.  Most  of  the  plants  grown 
upon  the  farm  have  a  fairly  large  root  develop- 
ment. It  therefore  is  apparent  that  they  should 
have  a  considerable  loosened  soil  space  in  which 
properly  to  grow  their  roots.  Eare  is  the  plant 
that  will  develop  a  large  root  system  in  close  com- 
pact soil,  and  rare  is  the  plant  that  will  come  to 
full  maturity  and  harvest  without  the  development 
of  a  large  root  system. 

Soils  in  the  progress  of  formation  were  kept 
loosened  up  considerably  deeper  than  they  were 
ever  afterwards  plowed,  by  the  growing  roots  of 
trees,  plants,  shrubs  and  wild  grasses,  and  the 
great  amount  of  organic  matter  put  into  them  by 
these  agencies.  The  roots  of  the  vegetation  men- 
tioned pushed  down  into  the  soil  in  every  direc- 
tion and  loosened  it  up  more  effectively  than  could 
be  done  by  any  plow.  And  the  great  amount  of 
organic  matter  put  into  the  soil  by  the  decaying 
of  vegetation  kept  it  loose  so  that  plant  and  tree 
roots  could  properly  develop,  so  thrifty  and  lux- 
uriant vegetation  grew  upon  these  soils  before 
they  were  brought  into  cultivation. 

When  cultivation  began  upon  them  and  they 
were  subjected  to  years  of  crop  growing,  the  or- 
ganic matter  in  them  was  eaten  up  by  growing 
crops  and  they  became  compact.  Year  after  year 
they  were  plowed  and  cultivated  to  the  same  depth 
so  that  there  was  formed  under  the  plowing  depth 
a  plow  sole  or  a  stratum  of  hard  earth,  through 
which  water  slowly  passes  and  plant  roots  cannot 


132       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

enter.  If  the  soil  stratum  above  this  plow  sole  is 
from  three  to  six  inches  in  depth,  it  quickly  be- 
comes saturated  with  water  in  flood  time,  which 
rapidly  runs  off  carrying  with  it  the  dissolved  soil, 
resulting  in  great  erosion  and  badly  washed  fields. 
And  what  soil  remains,  being  of  so  thin  a  stratum, 
quick  evaporation  of  its  moisture  results,  and 
havoc  is  wrought  to  the  crops  growing  upon  it, 
and  the  plow  sole  prevents  any  moisture  coming 
from  below  by  the  process  of  capillary  attraction. 

The  true  theory  of  deeper  plowing  is  that  the 
soil  may  be  loosened  up  to  that  depth  which  will 
gather  a  large  quantity  of  moisture,  when  mois- 
ture is  available,  and  which  can  by  proper  meth- 
ods of  cultivation  be  retained  in  dry  weather  for 
the  use  of  the  growing  plants,  and  that  will  give 
plants,  especially  the  deep  and  extensive  rooted 
ones,  the  best  environment  for  their  proper  and 
full  development. 

Eecent  experiments  in  dynamiting  the  plow  sole 
and  hard  sub-soil  of  soils  which  resulted  in  the 
thrifty  growth  of  fruit  trees,  alfalfa,  com  and 
better  crops  generally,  prove  that  the  theory  of 
deeper  plowing  is  not  an  idle  dream  of  the  theo- 
rist. 

The  success  of  dry  farming  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  soil  is  plowed  deep  so  that  it  can  gather 
a  large  supply  of  moisture  when  moisture  is  avail- 
able, which  is  afterwards  conserved  by  its  prac- 
tices of  cultivation,  especially  designed  to  con- 
serve this  gathered  moisture.  Where  green  ma- 
nuring and  the  plowing  under  of  cornstalks  or 
other  matured  organic  matter  upon  the  farm  is 
practiced,  deeper  plowing  must  be  practiced  upon 


PLOWING  133 

the  farm  or  the  organic  matter  cannot  be  turned 
under  successfully  and  in  a  manner  that  insures 
success  in  growing  crops. 

For  forty  years  the  average  depth  of  plowing 
in  North  Carolina  was  four  inches  and  the  aver- 
age of  corn  grown  in  this  time  was  fifteen  bushels 
to  the  acre.  The  government  experimental  farms 
for  the  year  1912  plowed  three  thousand  acres  a 
greater  depth  and  secured  forty  bushels  to  the 
acre. 

In  the  Dakotas,  where  wheat  is  extensively 
grown,  mostly  by  the  large  ranch  farmers,  plow- 
ing is  mostly  done  by  the  steam  and  gasoline 
tractor,  pulling  plows  with  a  large  number  of 
bottoms,  and  shallow  plowing  from  three  to  four 
inches  is  practiced  with  the  result  that  a  wheat 
crop  is  secured  only  in  seasons  of  plenty  of  mois- 
ture, and  even  then  such  crops  are  not  secured  that 
would  be  if  deeper  plowing  was  practiced,  and 
money  in  wheat  grown  under  such  conditions  is 
made  by  putting  out  a  large  acreage  at  the  lowest 
expense  for  planting  and  harvesting.  If  the 
growing  season  be  dry,  failure  results.  Yet  ex- 
periments in  that  region  with  deeper  plowing  have 
proven  that  if  the  soil  was  plowed  deeply  and 
worked  with  the  end  of  moisture  conservation  in 
view,  greater  crops  would  be  secured  in  sea- 
sons of  plenty  of  moisture,  and  paying  crops  even 
secured  in  dry  seasons,  and  such  crops  secured 
that  would  pay  the  small  farmer  to  grow  wheat 
and  would  make  available  the  fertility  locked  up 
in  the  soil  stratum  lying  below  the  present  three  or 
four  inches  of  soil  generally  broken  up,  and  this, 
to  some  extent,  would  relieve  the  situation  of  ex- 


134       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

hausted  fertility  now  becoming  so  common  in  that 
country. 

The  author  has  experimented  with  the  deep 
tilling  machine  that  plows  the  soil  from  ten  to 
twenty  or  more  inches  in  depth,  and  he  has  gath- 
ered the  results  of  the  experience  of  others  with 
the  same  machine.  These  experiments  prove  that 
deeper  plowing  which  is  nothing  more  than  better 
tillage,  is  one  of  the  best  remedies  for  the  restora- 
tion of  our  ailing  soils,  because  it  makes  available 
for  plant  food  the  locked  up  fertility  in  the  stratum 
of  soil  below  the  plow  sole  which  has  lain  dormant 
so  long. 

It  also  proves  that  the  farmers  of  America  have 
too  long  allowed  themselves  to  be  frightened  by 
the  ** scarecrow'*  of  ** turning  up  too  much  bot- 
tom soir'  flaunted  by  well  meaning  persons,  no 
doubt,  but  which  has  so  encouraged  the  shallow 
plowing  practice  by  the  American  farmer  who 
was  eager  to  adopt  its  principles  because  shallow 
plowing  was  so  much  easier  done,  and  so  relieved 
the  burden  from  his  horses  and  mules  that  fur- 
nished the  motive  power  to  move  the  plows. 

In  the  consideration  of  the  question  of  the 
proper  method  of  plowing  we  must  determine  first 
what  is  deep  plowing,  or  what  is  shallow  plow- 
ing? 

To  draw  the  line  of  demarkation  between  the 
two  would  simply  be  the  opinion  of  the  individual 
making  the  definition,  for  there  has  been  no  stand- 
ard definition  fixed.  However  the  general  con- 
sensus of  opinion  seems  to  be,  and  which  ought  to 
become  the  fixed  standard,  that  any  plowing  of 


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PLOWING  135 

nine  inches  and  over  is  deep  plowing,  and  there- 
fore, any  plowing  under  nine  inches  is  shallow 
plowing. 

In  the  author's  judgment  this  standard  is  as 
good  as  any  that  can  be  fixed,  for  he  has  learned 
by  observation  and  much  experience  that  the  plow- 
ing of  most  of  our  soils  to  a  depth  of  nine  inches 
is  the  plowing  of  them  to  that  depth  that  gives 
the  full  benefits  of  deep  plowing.  Nine  inch  plow- 
ing, done  with  the  proper  plow,  breaks  up  the  plow 
sole,  properly  incorporates  any  organic  matter 
that  may  be  upon  the  surface  of  the  ground  with 
the  soil,  and  makes  a  seed  bed  with  sufficient  room 
for  the  proper  root  development  of  most  any 
plant  grown  by  the  farmer,  and  gives  a  large  stor- 
age room  for  moisture  when  it  is  available  to  be 
conserved  and  used  for  future  crop  growth. 

Not  every  plow  is  capable  of  plowing  the  soil 
more  than  nine  inches  in  depth.  It  can  not  be 
done  successfully  with  the  two  horse  walking 
plow,  for  the  draft  will  be  too  much  for  the  horses. 
And  many  of  the  single  bottom  three  horse  riding 
plows,  and  the  two  bottom  gang  plows,  are  not 
so  constructed  that  they  will  turn  correctly  the 
nine  inch  furrow  slice.  Their  construction  has 
had  in  view  the  turning  of  a  ^ve,  six,  or  seven  inch 
furrow  slice.  Yet  some  of  these  plows  will  do 
nine  inch  plowing  successfully.  Illustration  on 
page  125  shows  one  of  them  at  work  turning  as 
nice  a  nine  inch  furrow  ever  seen  upon  the  farm. 

Many  of  the  modern  disc  plows  will  plow  nine, 
ten  and  twelve  inches  in  depth,  and  do  a  job  of 
perfect  plowing  and  with  light  draft.    Illustra- 


136       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

tion  entitled  A  Medium  Size  Gasoline  Tractor 
shows  a  modem  tractor  doing  perfect  deep  plow- 
ing. 

While  the  invention  of  the  gang  and  many  bot- 
tom tractor  plows  has  led  to  extensive  rather  than 
intensive  farming,  by  which  vast  tracts  have  been 
brought  into  cultivation,  and  sown  to  the  same 
crops  year  after  year,  and  which  led  ultimately 
to  their  exhaustion  of  fertility,  yet  these  plows 
can  be  made  to  do  a  great  service  to  the  farmer 
who  conserves  and  builds  up  the  soil  fertility,  as 
it  will  enable  him  to  plow  his  soil  the  proper  depth, 
and  at  a  reduced  cost  per  acre,  and  at  a  time  when 
it  is  in  proper  condition  for  breaking.  And  many 
of  these  tractor  plows  have  sufficient  motive  power 
for  moving  plows  at  the  proper  depth  and  eco- 
nomically. 

The  summing  up  of  the  whole  matter  of  plowing 
is  that  taking  in  view  the  present  condition  of 
our  soils  and  their  needs,  we  must  secure  the 
breaking  plow  for  our  farms  that  will 

1st.  Properly  turn  over  the  soil  to  a  depth  of 
nine  or  more  inches. 

2d.  That  will  as  near  as  possible  turn  com- 
pletely under  green  manuring  crops  and  other  or- 
ganic matter. 

3d.  That  will  as  little  as  possible  press  to- 
gether the  soil  grains  at  the  bottom  of  the  furrow 
slice  so  as  not  to  interfere  with  capillary  action. 

4th.    That  have  the  lightest  draft. 

5th.  That  can  be  rapidly  moved  in  the  most 
economical  manner,  and  yet  do  proper  work. 

6th.  That  will  reduce  surface  soil  packing  to 
a  minimum.    Surface  soil  packing  by  plows  per- 


PLOWING  137 

tain  only  to  tractor  plowing  outfits,  and  upon  soils 
susceptible  to  packing. 

When  we  have  secured  the  proper  plows  for  our 
farm  we  must  have  sufficient  motive  power  to 
move  them  and  keep  them  going  when  the  soil  is 
in  the  proper  condition  for  plowing.  A  vast 
amount  of  injury  is  done  every  year  by  plow- 
ing our  soils  when  not  in  proper  condition  for 
plowing.  Soil  is  only  in  proper  condition  for 
plowing  when  it  is  neither  too  wet  nor  too  dry,  and 
as  the  period  when  the  soil  is  in  proper  condition 
for  plowing  is  so  short,  the  importance  of  plenty 
of  motive  power  is  apparent. 

Farmers  figure  that  the  keeping  of  more  horses 
upon  the  farm  than  is  needed  for  the  cultivation 
and  marketing  of  the  crops  grown,  is  expensive 
and  eats  up  too  much  of  the  profits  of  the  busi- 
ness. And  there  is  truth  in  this  contention.  Yet 
we  must  consider  the  damage  resulting  in  not 
breaking  up  our  soils  when  in  the  right  condition. 
The  problem  is  not  without  its  difficulties  and  has 
given  the  author  more  trouble  than  any  of  his 
farm  problems.  He  has  felt  that  the  true  solu- 
tion of  the  question  is  a  light  tractor,  weighing 
6000  pounds,  or  less,  with  a  two  or  three  bottom 
plowing  outfit,  capable  of  coming  up  to  the  speci- 
fications of  the  proper  plow  for  the  farm  hereto- 
fore given,  and  especially  the  specification  as  to 
the  packing  of  the  soil. 

Such  an  outfit  could  be  operated  economically 
and  could  be  kept  going  night  and  day  when  the 
right  period  for  plowing  is  at  hand.  And  then 
when  the  plowing  season  was  over  it  could  be  sub- 
jected for  many  uses  upon  the  farm,  and  even 


138       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

when  not  in  use  would  be  at  no  cost  of  mainte- 
nance; it  would  be  of  no  expense  to  the  farmer 
except  the  slight  cost  of  depreciation,  interest  and 
insurance,  and  would  be  an  immense  saving 
over  the  cost  of  keeping  an  extra  supply  of  horses 
for  plowing  which  would  be  doing  nothing  at  other 
seasons  of  the  year  and  whose  cost  of  keeping  is 
so  great. 

The  author  ventures  the  prophecy  that  the  day 
is  near  at  hand  when,  not  only  all  our  breaking 
of  the  soil  will  be  done  by  the  small  farm  tractor, 
but  cultivation,  hauling  to  market  and  much,  if 
not  all  other  farm  work  will  be  done  by  these  tract- 
ors, and  by  cultivating  implements  propelled  by 
gasoline  or  electricity  manufactured  upon  the 
farm.  It  is  practicable  and  only  remains  for  the 
genius  to  invent  the  farm  machinery  necessary, 
and  the  author  has  so  much  faith  in  the  American 
mechanical  genius  that  he  believes  that  this  is  a 
consummation  that  will  come  to  pass  and  soon  be- 
come a  part  of  our  farm  economy. 

But  until  this  is  brought  about  upon  our  farms 
we  must  continue  to  use  the  motive  power  of  horses 
and  mules,  and  we  can  reduce  the  cost  of  such 
power,  and  minimize  other  objections,  only  by 
installing  upon  our  farms  the  heavy  draft  horses 
which  cost  but  little  more,  if  any,  to  feed  and 
care  for  than  the  horses  of  lighter  weight.  With 
the  heavy  draft  horses  plows  can  be  moved  easier, 
and  plowing  can  be  done  to  proper  depths  and  at 
the  lowest  possible  cost  and  at  proper  times.  But 
to  do  this,  we  are  again  confronted  with  the  ques- 
tion of  lack  of  capital,  for  the  first  cost  of  large 
draft  horses  is  heavy. 


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PLOWING  139 

Every  farmer  knows,  or  should  know,  that 
proper  plowing  contributes  much  to  successful 
farm  operations,  therefore  we  wish  to  emphasize 
these  facts :  that  plowing  must  be  done  just  at  the 
right  time  in  order  to  secure  the  greater  success 
in  the  growing  of  crops ;  that  the  plowing  or  break- 
ing up  of  the  soil  in  the  spring  of  the  year  is  the 
hardest  task  upon  the  farm  as  the  time  is  limited, 
for  its  accomplishment,  and  there  are  generally 
but  few  days  when  the  soil  is  just  right  for  break- 
ing; that  generally  the  soil  plows  hard,  horses  are 
*^soff  and  unused  to  work,  and  that  to  do  the 
work  right  the  soil  needs  to  be  broken  deeply 
which  means  power  to  move  the  plow. 

The  average  farmer  from  lack  of  capital  has 
but  few  horses  and  they,  as  a  general  rule,  are 
light  in  weight  and  totally  unsuited  for  heavy 
draft  purposes,  consequently  in  a  majority  of 
cases,  plowing  is  never  done  at  the  right  time  or 
in  the  right  manner. 

If  plenty  of  capital  were  available  to  most  farm- 
ers they  would  or  could  provide  themselves  with 
a  sufficient  number  of  horses  of  sufficient  draft 
capacity,  to  move  sufficient  plows,  plowing  a  suf- 
ficient depth  to  insure  the  breaking  of  their  soil  at 
the  right  stage  and  thus  secure  a  satisfactory  crop 
yield. 

When  Eoman  agriculture  was  at  its  height  of 
perfection,  Eome  was  flourishing  as  the  greatest 
nation  then  on  earth,  and  her  greatest  agricultural 
writer  recorded  that  the  first  principle  of  agricul- 
ture was  **to  plow  well.''  That  the  second  prin- 
ciple was  to  ''plow  again,"  and  many  Eoman  till- 
ers of  the  soil  plowed  their  lands  as  many  as  nine 


140       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

times  for  a  single  crop.  It  was  their  creed  to 
plow  well  and  in  good  weather  so  as  to  avoid  clods. 
The  successful  Roman  farmer  never  allowed  his 
eye  to  deceive  him,  for  he  knew  that  too  often  the 
smooth  surface  of  the  soil  left  by  plowing  con- 
ceals the  clods.  So  he  took  the  sharp,  stout  stick, 
and  drove  it  into  the  newly  plowed  soil.  If  it 
readily  penetrated  the  soil  to  the  plow  depth,  he 
knew  the  plowing  had  been  well  done,  and  that 
there  were  no  concealed  clods.  If  the  stick  pene- 
trated the  soil  with  difficulty,  he  knew  his  plow- 
ing had  been  badly  done,  and  that  the  soil  had 
broken  up  cloddy,  and  so  would  not  be  in  the 
proper  condition  for  the  successful  growing  of 
crops.  To  avoid  clods  they  advised  against  plow- 
ing their  lands  before  the  13th  of  April. 

While  the  farmer  of  to-day  is  more  interested 
in  how  soils  should  be  plowed  now,  yet  if  he  would 
but  study  how  the  best  farmers,  even  the  farmers 
of  thousands  of  years  ago,  plowed  their  soils,  he 
would  get  the  greater  inspiration  to  plow  well. 
We  have  frequently  said  that  soils  after  they  have 
been  cultivated  for  a  score  or  more  of  years,  plow 
differently  from  the  way  they  did  when  first  sub- 
jected to  cultivation,  for  when  the  vegetable  or 
organic  matter  content  has  been  reduced  in  them, 
they  become  compact  and  easily  assume  the  cloddy 
condition,  and  to  plow  them  in  this  state  when  they 
are  too  freely  saturated  with  moisture,  means  to 
secure  the  cloddy  seed  bed,  which  under  present 
soil  conditions,  is  one  of  the  most  serious  menaces 
to  successful  farm  operations. 

Never  plow  the  clay  soils  when  they  are  too  wet, 


PLOWING  141 

for  if  so  plowed  they  may  be  years  in  recovering 
from  such  evil  treatment. 

He  who  is  possessed  of  sandy  soils  is  too  often 
imbued  with  the  erroneous  notion  that  the  soils 
can  be  safely  plowed  long  before  clay  soils  are  in 
proper  condition  for  plowing.  There  is  as  great, 
if  not  greater  danger  in  plowing  sandy  soils  when 
too  wet.  The  author  is  speaking  from  experience 
of  years  in  the  plowing  of  sandy  soils.  The  plow- 
ing of  those  soils  when  too  wet,  especially  when 
they  are  short  on  organic  matter  content,  means 
that  they  will  pack  and  become  like  mixed  cement 
and  sand,  and  so  become  almost  utterly  incapable 
of  being  put  in  condition  for  the  successful  grow- 
ing of  crops  upon  them,  until  they  have  been  re- 
stored by  severe  freezing,  and  filling  with  green 
manuring  crops  and  organic  matter. 

Farmers,  get  the  vision  of  proper  plowing. 
Secure  the  plow  that  does  not  belie  its  name. 
Plow  with  sufficient  motive  power.  Plow  when 
soil  is  in  condition.  Plow  deep.  Plow  to  reduce 
*'dead  furrows"  to  the  minimum.  Plow  aBsthet- 
ically. 

The  plow  that  does  not  belie  its  name  is  the  plow 
of  light  draft,  and  one  which  cuts  the  deep  furrow 
slice  and  turns  it  completely  over  so  that  any  or- 
ganic matter  being  plowed  under  will  be  cov- 
ered beyond  the  reach  of  cultivating  machinery, 
leaving  the  upturned  soil  as  nearly  level  as  pos- 
sible. 

The  **dead  furrows"  produce  crops  of  stunted 
growth,  and  this  stunted  crop  growth  appearing 
too  often  in  our  fields,  not  only  reduces  the  total 


142       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

crop  yield  to  an  extent  worthy  of  considering,  but 
produces  unsightly  effects  that  the  true  farmer  no 
more  desires  to  see  than  he  does  the  *^  runts '* 
among  his  farm  animals. 

While  these  ^^dead  furrows"  can  not  be  en- 
tirely avoided,  yet  by  a  little  study  and  planning, 
which  planning  and  study  can  be  done  at  idle 
times,  they  can  be  largely  eliminated. 

The  sesthetical  side  of  plowing  is  to  plow  in 
straight  lines,  to  avoid  the  '^dead  furrows,*'  and 
to  secure  the  pleasing  effect  to  the  eye,  for  the 
neatly  and  well  plowed  fields,  plowed  in  straight 
lines,  bespeak  the  skilled  farm  workman  who  does 
his  work  right  and  with  thoughtful  care,  and  mean 
that  his  every  work  upon  the  farm  will  be  done 
with  the  same  skill  and  attention,  thus  securing 
success  in  the  business  of  farming. 


THE  GOOD  TILLAGE  IMPLEMENTS. 
(Courtesy   International   Harvester   Company,   Chicago,   111.) 


CHAPTEE  X 

THE   PEEPAEATION    OF   THE   SOH.   AFTER  PLOWING   FOR 
THE   SEED  BED 

TO  properly  prepare  the  soil  for  the  seed  bed 
after  it  is  plowed  or  broken  up,  is  as  impor- 
tant as  the  right  plowing  of  the  soil,  and  yet  few 
farmers  give  this  the  attention  it  should  receive. 
The  author  has  always  contended  that  the  soil 
properly  prepared  for  the  seed  bed  after  it  has 
been  plowed  is  half  the  cultivation  of  the  crop, 
that  is,  if  the  soil  be  put  in  the  right  condition 
for  planting  that  the  crops  grown  do  not  need 
thereafter  one-half  the  cultivation  usually  given, 
and  besides  there  are  other  and  important  advan- 
tages to  be  obtained. 

Old  agricultural  writers  of  practice  contended 
that  ** tillage  is  manure."  That  proper  prepara- 
tion of  the  soil  is  nothing  more  than  intensive  till- 
age, and  that  intensive  tillage  pulverizes  and 
mixes  up  the  soil,  that  it  paves  the  way  for  the  re- 
lease of  soil  elements  that  feed  the  growing  plants. 
But  how  are  we  to  get  this  tillage  or  proper  prep- 
aration 1 

1st.  We  must  have  the  proper  implements  with 
which  to  do  it. 

2d.     It  must  be  done  at  the  right  time. 

3d.  The  tillage  must  be  thorough  or  in  quan- 
tity. 

If  soil  is  hard,  compact,  and  devoid  of  the 

143 


144       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

proper  moisture  to  make  it  break  up  and  turn  over 
loose  by  the  breaking  plow,  we  will  have  the  clods, 
a  hindrance  to  good  tillage  and  a  menace  to  crop 
growth,  if  steps  are  not  taken  immediately  after 
plowing  to  break  them  up.  And  even  if  the  soil 
breaks  up  loosely,  it  is  necessary  to  submit  it  to 
proper  tillage  to  conserve  moisture  and  to  bring 
out  or  make  available  the  fertility  within  it. 

Various  pulverizing  devices  to  be  attached  to 
breaking  plows  have  been  invented,  which  are 
designed  to  work  down  the  soil  to  smoothness  and 
fineness  at  the  time  the  soil  is  plowed.  Some  of 
these  are  successful,  but  they  generally  add  to  the 
already  overburdened  plow  moved  by  horses,  and 
60  are  impracticable  for  that  reason.  So  the 
farmer  must  rely  upon  the  implement  designed 
to  run  separately  from  the  plow.  Such  imple- 
ments heretofore  used  are  the  roller,  the  harrow, 
the  disc,  the  pulverizer  and  the  drag,  the  most 
commonly  used  being  the  harrow.  While  the  har- 
row is  a  satisfactory  implement  to  be  used  for  this 
purpose,  when  soil  plows  up  in  a  loose  state,  it 
should  not  be  relied  upon  entirely  to  prepare  a 
proper  seed  bed.  The  common  spike  tooth  and 
spring  tooth  harrows  are  the  most  common  and 
best  t3rpes  of  harrows  to  use. 

The  roller  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  imple- 
ments upon  the  farm,  but  must  be  used  with  judg- 
ment. If  soil  is  already  too  moist,  it  does  not 
need  the  roller;  in  fact,  the  roller  would  injure  it. 
In  the  absence  of  too  much  moisture,  it  should  al- 
ways be  used  and  must  be  used  when  green  ma- 
nuring and  the  plowing  under  of  other  organic 
matter  is  practiced  upon  the  farm. 


PREPAEATION  OF  THE  SOIL       145 

The  modern  up-to-date  double  disc,  one  section 
of  the  cut  away  pattern  and  the  other  section  the 
common  round  disc,  is  a  farm  implement  of  great 
value  and  should  be  extensively  used  in  all  soils, 
and  no  other  implement  will  give  the  proper  till- 
age that  this  implement  gives  to  the  soil.  Of 
course  it  requires  power,  four  horses,  to  properly 
move  it,  but  it  has  capacity  for  quick  work,  leaves 
the  soil  level,  and  certainly  gives  the  best  tillage 
of  any  farm  implement  designed  and  built  for  that 
purpose. 

The  drag,  an  implement  of  home  manufacture, 
for  they  are  generally  made  upon  the  farm,  is 
another  valuable  implement  which  gives  the  best 
of  tillage  if  properly  constructed.  They  should 
be  made  of  heavy  one  and  one-half  or  two  inch 
plank,  and  of  weight  that  requires  at  least  three 
horses  to  move  them.  The  author  regards  the 
drag  as  one  of  his  most  valuable  farm  implements 
to  use  in  the  preparation  of  the  soil  for  the  seed 
bed.  In  the  first  place  it  is  not  an  expensive  farm 
tool.  Any  farmer  with  material  can  easily  make 
it.  It  levels  and  pulverizes  the  soil  and  packs  it 
correctly  so  as  to  aid  conservation  of  moisture. 
Of  course  it  must  be  understood  that  the  drag 
should  never  be  used  when  the  soil  is  too  wet. 
Like  the  roller,  it  must  be  used  with  judgment. 

Most  farmers  are  content  if  they  simply  harrow 
their  soil  after  it  is  plowed,  before  planting  the 
seed.  In  the  present  age  this  is  a  serious  mistake. 
We  have  already  shown  that  when  our  soils  were 
first  brought  into  cultivation  such  a  method  of 
preparation  might  be  successful,  but  it  will  no 
longer  do  to  practice  this  system.     To  get  the 


146       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

best  service  from  the  soil  in  growing  crops  we 
must  give  it  intensive  tillage  before  planting  the 
seed. 

The  soil  should  be  subjected  to  this  process  of 
preparation  within  a  few  hours  after  it  is  plowed, 
for  the  sooner  it  is  thoroughly  prepared  for  the 
seed  bed  the  better,  as  it  is  then  put  into  condi- 
tion for  the  conservation  of  moisture,  and  the  soil 
is  in  its  best  condition  for  pulverizing  and  work- 
ing up  to  the  best  seed  bed. 

Where  failures  have  been  made  in  plowing  un- 
der heavy  crops  for  green  manuring  purposes,  it 
has  invariably  been  due  to  the  fact  that  the  green 
crops  were  not  properly  plowed  under  as  to  depth 
and  covering  with  soil,  and  the  soil  was  not  suf- 
ficiently packed  with  the  roller  or  drag  after  plow- 
ing. 

If  the  farmer  would,  in  the  various  processes 
of  crop  growing,  be  as  careful  as  the  manufacturer 
is  in  his  various  processes  of  manufacturing  his 
products,  so  as  to  get  the  best  finished  product, 
he  would  make  a  better  success  of  farming.  Both 
farmer  and  manufacturer  must  give  important 
consideration  as  to  cost,  yet  the  value  of  the  fin- 
ished product  must  always  be  kept  in  view,  and 
it  must  not  be  sacrificed  for  cost.  Therefore,  any 
process  that  will  obtain  a  better  and  greater  quan- 
tity of  the  finished  product  must  be  installed  upon 
the  farm  as  well  as  in  the  manufacturing  plant. 

If  the  proper  development  of  plants  needs  a 
better  seed  bed  of  thoroughly  pulverized  drained 
soil,  full  of  organic  matter  so  that  it  becomes  a 
favorable  environment  for  ventilation,  heat,  mois- 
ture, soil  bacteria  and  the  other  essentials  of  plant 


PEEPAEATION  OF  THE  SOIL       147 

growth,  then  the  farmer  can  not  afford  to  spare 
any  expense  or  labor  to  secure  that  end,  for  it 
means  more  and  better  farm  products  and  better 
prices  for  same.  So  the  author  contends  that 
many  of  the  failures  of  crop  growing  are  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  farmer  does  not  properly  pre- 
pare his  seed  bed,  even  after  he  has  drained,  fed, 
and  broken  up  his  soil. 

The  author,  from  a  long  experience,  has  been 
convinced  that  the  old  agricultural  writers  stated 
a  great  truth  when  they  said  that  ^  tillage  is  ma- 
nure,'' and  every  farmer,  if  he  has  any  sense  of 
observation,  and  he  has  no  business  to  follow  the 
business  of  farming  unless  he  has  such  a  sense, 
has  certainly  observed  that  the  better  his  soil  has 
been  worked  down  for  the  seed  bed,  the  better  he 
can  plant  his  seeds,  and  cultivate  his  plants,  the 
better  they  will  grow,  and  a  greater  eradication  of 
weeds  will  result. 

In  the  consideration  of  costs  we  must  never  for- 
get results.  If  increased  cost  will  result  in  more 
and  better  products,  and  conserve  and  increase 
the  fertility  of  our  soils,  we  should  pay  the  price. 

Therefore,  in  the  preparation  of  the  soil  for 
the  seed  bed,  we  should  not  let  cost  prevent  us 
from  the  frequent  use  of  the  harrow,  the  roller, 
the  disc  and  the  drag,  if  it  will  put  our  soil  in 
that  condition  that  will  produce  the  heavier  bur- 
den of  crop  growth,  and  the  better  product,  for 
such  a  result  means  the  greater  profit,  besides  the 
glorious  satisfaction  of  doing  and  accomplishing 
something  worth  while. 

The  results  of  better  farming  are  what 
every  one  must  strive  for  who  desires  to  make 


148       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

a  success  of  the  business  of  farming,  and  these 
results  can  be  obtained  in  the  greater  measure  if 
the  tiller  of  the  soil  will  catch  and  put  into  action 
the  spirit  of  thorough  tillage  before  the  planting 
of  the  seed. 


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CHAPTEE  XI 

SEEDS,  SEED  SELECTION  AND  SEED  PLANTING 

TO  insure  success  in  the  business  of  farming 
there  must  not  only  be  a  combination  of  all 
the  elements  that  enter  into  the  business,  into  the 
harmonious  whole,  but  each  element  must  be  per- 
fect within  itself. 

The  most  perfectly  developed  seed,  a  single  ele- 
ment of  the  business,  will  not  reproduce  itself  in 
kind  if  it  is  planted  in  a  soil,  another  element  of 
the  business,  that  has  been  shorn  of  its  fertility. 

This  truth  was  exemplified  in  the  parable  of  the 
sower  uttered  by  the  Christ  to  the  multitudes  by 
the  side  of  the  Galilean  sea.  The  sower  went 
forth  to  sow  one  kind  of  seed  and  that  which  fell 
into  the  thin  stony  soil  sprang  up  and  for  lack  of 
the  deep  soil  that  gives  forth  moisture  and  plant 
food,  either  withered  away  and  died  or  repro- 
duced the  inferior  seed.  The  seed  that  fell 
upon  the  fertile  soil  full  of  weed  and  thorn  life, 
was  choked  by  their  thrifty  unchecked  growth. 
But  the  good  seed  that  fell  into  good  ground  put 
into  proper  condition  and  cared  for  by  the  careful 
husbandman  brought  forth  seed  of  its  kind,  even 
to  a  hundredfold. 

We  are  thus  taught  that  while  seed  selection  is 
a  most  important  thing  in  the  business  of  farm- 
ing, yet  when  we  have  selected  the  good  seed  our 

149 


150       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

work  is  only  begun;  we  must  reach  out  further 
and  secure  those  conditions  of  good  soil,  good 
tillage  and  careful  cultivation  that  give  the  seed 
the  chance  to  live,  grow  and  reproduce. 

This  truth  was  *^ driven  home''  to  the  author 
in  a  most  emphatic  manner  the  past  season.  He 
secured  some  of  the  best  Eeed's  Yellow  Dent  Seed 
Corn  that  could  be  found  in  Indiana,  getting  the 
seed  on  the  ear,  and  paying  a  fancy  price  for  it. 
Every  ear  was  almost  perfect  and  was  carefully 
tested.  One  bushel  of  this  seed  was  planted  as 
an  experiment  upon  a  plot  of  soil,  every  part  of 
which  was  of  the  same  character  of  soil,  but  part 
of  it  was  worn  and  to  this  no  fertilizing  matter 
had  been  given.  The  remainder  of  the  plot  had 
been  fertilized  with  green  manuring  crops  un- 
til it  was  in  a  most  fertile  stage.  The  entire  plot 
was  plowed  the  same  depth  and  given  the  same 
tillage  and  put  in  the  best  possible  condition  for 
the  planting  of  the  seed.  The  corn  was  planted 
with  the  same  planter  and  to  the  same  depth. 
Cultivation  afterwards  was  the  same  upon  all 
parts  of  the  plot.  When  the  com  was  harvested 
that  upon  the  worn  soil  was  inferior  and  of  the 
stunted  growth.  The  seed  had  not  reproduced  in 
kind.  The  com  upon  the  good  ground  produced 
the  hundredfold  crop  of  fine  perfect  corn ;  the  seed 
had  here  reproduced  its  kind  and  the  truth  was 
emphasized  that  seed  will  only  reproduce  its  kind 
when  conditions  for  growth  are  favorable,  and 
that  success  in  producing  the  manufactured  prod- 
ucts of  the  farm  depends  upon  a  good  combination 
of  all  the  elements  that  enter  into  the  business. 
In  seed  selection  these  rules  should  obtain: 


SEED  SELECTION  AND  PLANTING     151 

1st.  The  Variety.  In  the  selection  of  a  va- 
riety we  must  first  determine  whether  it  is  suitable 
for  the  locality  of  our  soil.  Its  quality  of  pro- 
ductiveness and  ability  to  mature  its  crops  in  the 
growing  season.  The  quality  of  its  kind  and 
feeding  value,  and  the  demand  for  the  products  it 
produces  in  our  particular  markets. 

2d.  The  Quality  of  the  Seed,  By  this  we  mean 
that  the  seed  must  be  of  the  variety  we  desire  to 
plant;  sound,  well  matured,  and  of  strong  germ- 
ination. While  the  trained  eye  can  detect  both 
the  good  and  the  weak  points  in  seeds,  yet  the 
only  safe  way  is  to  test  the  seed  in  the  testing  box. 

3d.  The  Vitality  of  the  Seed.  Seed  may 
germinate  and  yet  be  utterly  worthless.  Seeds- 
men seeking  to  dispose  of  their  inferior  seed  too 
often  insist  that  their  seed  is  good  because  it 
germinates  well,  but  that  is  no  criterion  of  good 
seed.  The  crucible  test  of  good  seed  is  a  vitality 
strong  enough  to  withstand  the  vicissitudes  of 
adverse  conditions  of  soil  and  weather  after  it 
has  germinated.  The  seed  may  germinate  and 
send  forth  a  plant  so  weak  in  vitality  that  it  read- 
ily succumbs  to  heat,  cold,  or  other  adverse  con- 
ditions that  every  seed  and  plant  must  encounter 
in  its  growing  process.  The  prematured  seed  is 
always  weak  in  vitality.  Nature  always  matures 
her  seeds  in  the  most  thorough  manner,  and  this 
is  the  reason  she  has  always  perpetuated  her  many 
varieties  of  plants  when  unaided  by  man.  Man 
goes  into  his  fields,  plucks  the  seeds  of  plants 
before  they  are  matured,  carefully  stores  and 
cares  for  them,  and  often  they  fail  to  grow  and 
reproduce  in  the  full  strength  necessary.    Old 


152       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

Nature  does  not  gather  her  seeds,  she  protects 
them  with  certain  coverings  and  surroundings,  ma- 
tures them  upon  their  mother  plant  stems  or 
vines,  subjects  them  to  moisture,  sunshine  and 
cold,  and  yet  they  grow  with  strength  and  vigor, 
and  reproduce  in  profusion. 

A  simple  illustration  proves  these  facts.  In 
early  spring  we  often  see  ears  of  corn  in  our 
stock  fields  that  have  escaped  the  harvest.  These 
ears  of  corn  would  be  plowed  under  and  when 
heat,  moisture  and  other  agencies  had  done  their 
work,  every  grain  upon  these  ears  would  send 
forth  a  strong,  vigorous  plant. 

Understand  that  the  author  is  not  advocating 
the  saving  and  caring  for  seeds  to  be  left  to  Na- 
ture, but  he  is  trying  to  emphasize  the  truth  that 
seeds  must  be  matured  in  order  that  they  be  pos- 
sessed of  strong  vitality. 

4th.  There  Must  he  Uniformity  of  Seed,  Some 
authorities  claim  that  this  trait  of  seeds  is  the  most 
important;  that  seed  may  be  strongly  marked  as 
to  germination,  strong  vitality,  productiveness, 
etc.,  yet  if  it  lack  in  uniformity  it  is  utterly  worth- 
less for  seed  purposes. 

By  uniformity  we  mean  uniformity  of  type, 
color,  time  of  maturing,  etc.  Seed  unevenly  ma- 
tured means  that  in  many  crops  we  have  the  plants 
showing  in  the  field  all  stages  of  maturity.  Blos- 
soms and  maturity  will  appear  at  the  same  time, 
which  can  result  in  nothing  else  than  loss.  By 
uniformity  we  mean  that  the  seeds  we  plant  must 
be  so  alike  in  all  the  essentials  required  of  good 
seeds  that  they  will  send  forth  plants  that  will 
mature  their  crops  at  the  same  time.    If  you 


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SEED  SELECTION  AND  PLANTING     153 

were  planting  peas  for  a  canning  factory,  and 
planted  ununif  orm  pea  seed,  it  would  mean  that  at 
harvest  time  you  would  have  all  stages  of  growth 
from  the  blossom  to  the  over  matured  pods,  which 
would  result  in  great  loss.  And  this  would  be 
true  with  many  crops. 

Uniformity  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  obtain,  and 
so  this  fact  is  the  cause  of  so  much  seed  of  this 
character,  and  of  so  many  dishonest  seedsmen. 
Seedsmen  resort  to  what  is  known  as  the  ** blend*' 
practice,  which  is  the  mixing  together  of  crops  of 
seeds  grown  by  their  different  growers.  Seeds 
produced  by  different  growers  in  different  local- 
ities upon  the  different  varieties  of  clay,  prairies 
and  light  soils,  of  different  degrees  of  fertility, 
affected  by  different  growing  conditions,  harv- 
ested at  different  stages  of  maturity,  and  under 
varied  treatments  as  to  sowing,  harvesting,  cur- 
ing, etc.,  affects  vitality,  germination,  and  pro- 
duce the  ununiform  seed. 

This  is  one  of  the  main  reasons  why  the  au- 
thor has  always  advocated  that  the  farmer  should 
always  grow  or  produce  his  own  seed  wherever 
it  is  possible  to  do  so.  But  some  seeds  he 
can  not  grow  if  he  would,  and  so  in  the  pur- 
chase of  these  he  is  at  the  mercy  of  the  seedsmen, 
unless  he  becomes  an  expert  in  the  judging  of 
seeds,  and  why  should  he  not  make  himself  an  ex- 
pert? He  must  do  it  if  he  wishes  to  make  a  suc- 
cess of  the  business  of  farming.  There  is  much  in 
the  old  axiom  **If  you  want  a  thing  done  right  do 
it  yourself. ' '  Follow  this  advice  as  much  as  possi- 
ble and  your  success  in  the  business  of  farming  is 
assured. 


154       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

Our  illustration  in  tMs  volume  entitled  **Like 
will  not  produce  like,"  should  send  home  the  les- 
son that  to  produce  uniform  seed  we  must  have 
soil  of  uniform  fertility.  No  matter  how  good 
your  seed  may  be  it  cannot  reproduce  uniformity 
where  some  seed  is  sown  on  worn  soil  and  some 
on  good  ground.  Ever  remember  the  truth  ex- 
emplified in  the  parable  of  the  sower. 

The  seed  sown  on  the  poor  soil  lacks  in  develop- 
ment because  it  has  been  starved.  The  elements 
that  enter  into  good  seed  that  make  the  seed  the 
best  of  its  kind  were  not  in  the  soil,  and  so  the 
plant  was  starved  and  its  offspring  was  weak  and 
lacked  in  uniformity. 

To  be  able  to  judge  uniformity  the  farmer  must 
familiarize  himself  with  the  size  of  the  varieties 
of  good  seed  of  the  different  crops  he  would  grow. 
Then  if  the  seed  he  wishes  to  plant  are  not  uni- 
form or  are  radically  different  as  to  size,  some  ex- 
ceedingly small  or  shrunken,  and  but  few  of  them 
measuring  up  to  the  fixed  standard  as  to  size,  he 
must  know  that  these  seeds  are  lacking  in  vitality ; 
that  some  will  germinate  slower  and  make  less 
rapid  growth,  in  fine,  that  the  planting  of  this 
kind  of  seed  means  nothing  but  financial  loss  be- 
sides worry. 

Some  one  has  said  that  seeds  should  be  classed 
as  follows:  **Poor,  very  poor,  and  almighty 
poor,"  and  many  are  to  be  classed  entirely  to 
themselves  under  the  appellation  '*  mighty  d — n 
poor."  The  ** blend"  furnished  by  too  many 
seedsmen  come  under  the  latter  class. 

The  author  was  severely  ** touched"  by  dishon- 
est seedsmen  before  he  learned  the  **seed  game" 


SEED  SELECTION  AND  PLANTING     155 

and  his  purchase  of  seeds  for  the  past  eighteen 
years  has  run  up  into  the  thousands  of  dollars 
each  year.  He  is  now  writing  from  experience 
and  wants  to  emphasize  the  truth  that  you  must 
learn  the  *  *  seed  game  * '  if  you  wish  to  avoid  finan- 
cial loss  and  much  worry. 

It  is  also  important  that  you  know  the  locality 
in  which  your  seeds  have  been  grown,  for  it  is  a 
fact  that  the  seeds  of  certain  plants  grown  in  the 
irrigated  regions  of  the  West  will  not  germinate 
forty  per  cent,  if  kept  over  one  year,  and  that  seeds 
grown  in  a  mild  climate  will  germinate  in  a  colder 
climate,  but  the  plants  that  spring  from  them  are 
unable  to  endure  the  tests  found  in  the  more  severe 
climate. 

5th.  Adulteration  and  Misbranding,  The 
author  can  hardly  write  upon  this  head  with  that 
composure  one  should  possess  to  write  unbiasedly. 

If  the  adulteration  of  seeds  were  made  a  crime 
punishable  with  the  punishments  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion, the  punishment  would  be  none  too  severe. 
And  why  should  he  not  write  with  righteous  indig- 
nation upon  this  subject  ?  For  the  past  eight  years 
he  has  learned  from  experience  and  investigation 
of  the  great  fertilizing  value  of  the  vetch  plant. 
By  much  writing  in  farm  journals  and  through  his 
Book  of  Vetch  he  has  attempted  to  disseminate 
the  virtues  of  this  plant  to  those  who  are  engaged 
in  the  business  of  farming.  But  what  was  his 
consternation  when  he  learned  that  many  had 
failed  with  the  plant;  and  what  was  his  indigna- 
tion when  he  learned  that  the  cause  of  the  failures 
was  adulteration  and  misbranding  of  vetch  seed. 
The  government  through  its  agricultural  depart- 


156       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

ment  spent  a  year  investigating  the  adulteration 
of  vetch  seed,  and  the  results  of  this  investigation 
were  enough  to  work  up  the  righteous  indignation 
of  any  one.  Out  of  303  samples  examined,  187  or 
62  per  cent,  were  adulterated.  Five  samples  did 
not  contain  a  single  seed  of  the  variety  named  and 
others  were  mixed  with  other  vetches.  Of  all  the 
vetch  seed  purchased  as  of  a  certain  variety,  but 
55.9  per  cent,  was  capable  of  germination.  Do 
you  wonder  then  that  the  author  can  not  write 
upon  this  branch  of  the  seed  subject  with  compo- 
sure? 

And  within  the  past  year  the  author  contracted 
with  a  prominent  seed  firm  for  them  to  grow 
him  one  thousand  bushels  of  pea  seed  at  four 
dollars  per  bushel,  the  same  to  be  suitable  for  seed 
purposes.  When  these  seed  came  in  and  the 
author  examined  them  he  found  so  great  an  un- 
unif  ormity  in  them  that  to  plant  them  would  mean 
a  loss  of  thousands  of  dollars.  It  was  clear  that 
the  seedsmen  had  practiced  the  **  blend  acf  to  the 
limit,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  seed  were  small 
and  immature.  Of  course  the  author  rejected  the 
seed,  yet  the  seedsman  is  contending  that  the  seed 
are  the  very  best  because  they  were  all  planted 
from  good  seed  stock,  which,  as  we  have  shown, 
means  nothing  where  conditions  necessary  for  the 
proper  development  of  seeds  are  lacking. 

We  have  written  enough  upon  seeds  and  seed 
selection  to  show  the  great  importance  of  the  sub- 
ject as  it  pertains  to  the  business  of  farming. 
But  there  is  another  element  as  important  as  good 
seed,  and  which  further  demonstrates  the  truth 


SEED  SELECTION  AND  PLANTING     157 

stated  in  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  that  there 
must  be  a  harmonious  combination  of  all  the  ele- 
ments that  enter  into  the  business  of  farming  to 
make  it  a  success.  This  last  element  is  the  plant- 
ing of  the  seed. 

The  best  seed  ever  grown  if  not  properly- 
planted  is  no  better  than  the  most  worthless  seed. 
And  that  branch  of  the  business  of  farming  more 
clearly  demonstrates  the  necessity  of  mixing 
brains,  thought  and  study,  with  the  business  of 
farming. 

Scarcely  two  varieties  of  seeds  can  be  planted 
in  the  same  manner  as  to  depth,  season,  etc. 
Seeds  vary  in  size  and  character  of  covering. 
Some  send  forth  the  tenderest  plants,  and  some 
the  hardy  plant.  Frost  or  cold  will  kill  the  one 
and  not  harm  the  other.  Some  seeds  that  even 
send  forth  the  fairly  hardy  plant,  if  planted  at 
too  great  a  depth  will  not  germinate  at  all.  This 
is  exemplified  in  field  and  sugar  com.  The  seeds 
of  these  two  plants,  planted  three  to  four  inches 
in  depth  in  cold,  compact  soil,  will  scarcely  germin- 
ate and  grow  twenty-five  per  cent.,  and  generally 
not  at  all. 

In  many  plants  the  character  of  growth  is  such 
that  if  the  seeds  are  planted  at  too  great  a  depth 
it  is  necessary  that  the  plant  readjust  itself  to  the 
conditions  of  planting  which  result  in  a  checked 
or  stunted  growth.  An  illustration  of  this  prin- 
ciple is  found  in  the  corn  plant.  Corn  has  two 
sets  of  roots,  one  above  the  surface  and  the  other 
underground.  The  ones  above  the  surface  are  the 
brace  roots  which  shoot  out  from  the  plant  above 
its  first  joints  about  an  inch  above  the  grain. 


158       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

Plant  the  grain  or  seed  too  deep,  a  new  and  un- 
natural joint  must  be  formed  at  the  surface  (for 
it  is  never  formed  under  the  surface)  from  which 
the  brace  roots  begin  to  grow.  So  corn  planted 
at  a  greater  depth  than  one  and  one-half  inches 
must  readjust  its  plant  so  as  to  meet  this  depth  of 
planting  and  form  the  unnatural  joint  for  its  brace 
roots  and  in  so  doing,  its  growth  receives  a  check 
that  affects  it  and  its  life. 

Seeds  must  be  planted  as  nature  intended  they 
should  be.  The  small  alfalfa  seed  sown  at  too 
great  a  depth  cannot  germinate,  and  yet  if  given 
the  light  or  no  covering,  may  encounter  conditions 
that  prevent  its  growth.  So  the  reader  can  read- 
ily see  the  necessity  of  mixing  brains  with  seeds, 
seed  selection,  and  even  seed  planting.  We  must 
know  the  characteristic  of  each  and  every  seed 
we  use  in  the  business  of  farming,  and  learn  how 
to  plant  them  to  bring  the  greatest  success.  And 
in  this  study  we  will  see  the  importance  of  prop- 
erly preparing  the  seed  bed  so  that  the  right  soil 
covering  can  be  given  seeds.  If  you  could  but  sit, 
down  and  figure  out  the  loss  that  occurs  each  yeai^ 
from  the  improper  planting  of  clover  seed  you  cer- 
tainly would  strive  to  figure  out  in  your  individual 
case  the  method  of  proper  sowing  so  as  to  avoid 
your  loss  at  least.  Yet  farmers  go  on  and  on  fol- 
lowing the  old  methods  of  sowing  clover  seed  that 
have  been  in  vogue  for  years  without  any  appar- 
ent reason  for  so  doing  other  than  that  father  did 
it  that  way. 

To  aid  and  protect  the  business  of  farming  in 
seed  selection  there  ought  to  be  a  national  law 


SEED  SELECTION  AND  PLANTING     159 

with  severe  penalties  for  its  violation  along  the 
following  lines: 

1st. — Providing  that  all  seeds  offered  for  sale 
must  be  true  to  name  or  not  be  mixed  with  noxious 
seeds. 

2d. — Providing  against  fraudulent  and  mislead- 
ing advertisements  of  seeds. 

3d. — Providing  that  seeds  are  misbranded  and 
fraudulent,  when  they  are  ununiform  and  of  low 
vitality. 

4th. — Providing  for  statement  on  label  or  pack- 
age stating  the  state  or  locality  where  grown. 


CHAPTEE  XII 

OTHEiR  AIDS   TO   THE   BUSINESS   OF   FAKMING 

IN  the  preparation  of  this  book  it  has  not  been 
the  purpose  of  the  author  to  discuss  the  details 
or  the  practicability  of  growing  the  different  crops 
grown  upon  our  various  farm  lands,  showing  how 
they  should  be  planted,  cultivated,  harvested  and 
utilized.  This  could  not  be  done  in  one  volume, 
and  besides,  it  is  the  aim  of  this  book  to  so 
present  the  importance  of  the  business  of 
farming,  that  its  efficiency  will  be  increased 
and  the  whole  business  may  be  put  on  a 
more  scientific  and  businesslike  basis,  and  to 
further  show  that  it  is  a  business  as  profitable 
and  with  as  many  opportunities  of  right  home 
building  and  living  as  any  other  business.  To  do 
this  it  is  not  necessary  to  discuss  various  farm 
crops  and  how  to  grow,  harvest  and  sell  them. 

We  have  already  stated  that  those  who  own  or 
occupy  farms  must  themselves  determine  the  kind 
of  crops  to  which  their  land  is  adapted.  But  they 
must  study  market  facilities  and  conditions  for 
their  lands  may  be  especially  suitable  for  the 
growing  of  certain  crops  for  which  there  might  be 
no  market  at  all. 

We  know  of  no  business  that  requires  as  much 
mixing  of  brains  with  its  details  as  does  the  busi- 
ness of  farming.    First,  we  must  study  our  soils 

160 


BU  PER  J 
10  YtAR  A  y£RA  CEOf  TEXAS 


SUPER  ACRE 

OCMtRM.  WEOAOEOrAllCONTCSTAKTS 


Comparison  of  Com  and  Cotton  Yields 
Prize  Crop  Contest 

of  the 

Texas  Industrial  Congress 

for  1912 


LAROeST  PfUZC  HWM\C  YIILO 


What  has  bet n  accotnplishtd 

by  a  few 

can  be  approximated 

by  many 


LAROf.ST  PRIZE  WINAIINC  VIILD 


POSSIBILITIES  OF  SCIENTIFIC  FARMING  EDUCA- 
TION PUT  INTO  PRACTICE. 

The  above  shows  the  accomplishment  of  Texas   farm  boys  and 
girls,  the  Texas  "Farmers  of  To-Morrow." 


OTHEE  AIDS  TO  FAEMING  161 

to  ascertain  their  needs,  and  then  we  must  know 
how  to  supply  that  need.  We  must  know  how  to 
prepare  our  soils  for  the  crops,  and  how  to  plant, 
cultivate  and  harvest,  sell,  or  utilize  the  crop. 
We  must  know  about  all  the  aids,  hindrances  and 
discouragements  of  the  business.  And  we  must 
know  the  characteristics  of  different  farm  crops 
so  as  to  ascertain  if  we  can  profitably  grow  them. 

Crop  knowledge  has  been  so  disseminated  in 
recent  years  that  most  farmers  know  what  crops 
are  suitable  for  their  localities.  Yet  we  must  not 
forget  that  it  is  a  fact,  which  has  been  forcibly 
demonstrated  in  recent  years,  that  there  are  many 
crops  that  can  be  grown  with  great  profit  not  only 
in  dollars  and  cents,  but  for  the  compensation  of 
the  soil,  which  were  formerly  unknown  to  the 
farmer  or  were  believed  to  be  unsuitable  for  gen- 
eral or  extensive  culture.  As  for  illustration,  take 
alfalfa,  vetch,  soy  beans,  cow  peas,  and  numerous 
other  crops  that  might  be  mentioned.  A  few 
years  ago  the  growing  of  these  crops  was  looked 
upon  as  the  fads  of  impracticable  men.  But  now 
we  know  they  are  the  godsends  of  agriculture. 

When  the  farmer  determines  the  crops  he  is  to 
grow,  then  he  must  begin  to  look  about  for  the 
hindrances  he  is  to  encounter,  or  the  aids  he  needs 
in  the  growing  of  the  crops  he  selects  for  his  land. 

We  have  shown  the  importance  of  having  a 
good  soil,  how  it  may  be  secured  and  put  in  order 
for  crop  growing,  and  many  of  the  hindrances  the 
farmer  will  encounter  and  aids  he  will  need,  yet 
there  are  others  worthy  of  consideration  and  that 
will  help  him  in  his  business  which  we  will  for  a 
time  consider. 


162       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 


PEEVENTION    OF   DISEASE   OF   LIVE    STOCK,   ETC. 

In  the  production  of  live  stock  on  the  farm 
every  precaution  must  be  taken  to  prevent  and 
cure  disease  to  which  all  animals  are  subject.  The 
prevention  of  disease  is  the  most  important,  for  an 
^^ ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of  cure." 
The  stockman  who  does  not  do  all  the  things  neces- 
sary to  prevent  disease  has  already  failed  in  his 
business.  The  same  is  true  of  the  orchardman, 
the  grower  of  small  fruits,  or  the  grower  of 
grains. 

Disease,  death  and  decay  seem  to  be  written 
on  every  living  thing.  While  they  cannot  be  elim- 
inated they  can  be  controlled,  and  the  mighty  brain 
of  man  has  wrought  out  methods  and  devices  for 
this  purpose. 

The  insect  pest  of  the  animal  and  vegetable 
kingdom  had  wrought  a  mighty  loss  upon  the  farm 
until  insecticides  were  formulated,  and  spraying 
and  dipping  devices  were  constructed  by  which 
they  could  be  applied  to  animals,  trees,  seeds  and 
plants,  and  the  loss  was  stayed. 

So  the  farm  without  the  best  formulas  for  in- 
secticides and  the  best  spraying  devices,  is  not 
equipped  for  its  business  and  failure  is  its  doom. 
Without  these  aids  live  stock  cannot  be  reared, 
orchard  and  other  fruits  be  grown  suitable  for 
market,  nor  certain  vegetables  like  potatoes,  can- 
not be  produced  in  paying  quality  or  quantity. 

CULTIVATION  OF  CKOPS. 

The  cultivation  of  farm  crops  has  always  been 
a  necessary  adjunct  to  successful  agriculture.    It 


OTHEE  AIDS  TO  FAEMING  163 

increases  in  importance  the  longer  our  soils  are 
subjected  to  cultivation.  New  soils  will  grow 
crops  with  little  cultivation,  and  even  the  char- 
acter of  the  cultivation  upon  these  soils  is  unim- 
portant. But  our  older  soils  have  lost  their  loose- 
ness and  organic  matter  content,  and  moisture 
holding  capacity,  and  so  the  cultivation  of  crops 
growing  upon  them  becomes  a  definite  science  that 
must  be  practiced  to  insure  success  in  crop  produc- 
tion. 

When  the  author  in  his  youth  cultivated  corn 
upon  his  father's  pioneer  farm,  planted  between 
the  stumps  of  the  newly  cleared  soil,  it  did  not 
much  matter  whether  his  old  double  shovel  plow 
with  shovels  as  large  as  the  blade  of  an  old  fash- 
ioned spade,  plowed  into  the  soil  a  half  inch  or 
six  inches  in  depth,  for  the  soil  was  so  loose  and 
full  of  fertility  that  it  produced  a  wilderness  of 
corn,  no  matter  whether  it  was  cultivated  or  not. 
But  that  kind  of  cultivation  practiced  upon  the 
same  land  now  with  the  same  kind  of  a  cultivator, 
would  prove  disastrous  to  the  corn  crop. 

The  successful  cultivators  for  our  lands,  long 
subject  to  cultivation  and  poorly  fed,  are  those 
with  which  we  can  give  shallow  and  level  cultiva- 
tion, enough  to  kill  weeds  and  give  the  one  to  two 
inch  soil  mulch. 

We  do  not  emphasize  enough  the  importance  of 
cultivation.  We  are  content  if  we  cultivate  our 
corn  and  vegetable  crops  three  or  four  times, 
which  is  not  enough.  There  are  times,  as  in 
periods  of  droughts,  when  we  should  keep  the  cul- 
tivators moving  until  crops  are  safe  from  the  on- 
slaught of  dry  weather. 


164       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

Orchard  or  small  fruit  growing  cannot  be  made 
a  success  without  constant  summer  cultivation, 
yet  many  orchards  are  never  cultivated. 

Wheat  is  benefited  by  spring  harrowing,  which 
is  nothing  more  than  cultivation.  Alfalfa  grow- 
ing is  likewise  made  doubly  successful  by  intensive 
harrowing  after  each  cutting. 

CBOP  EOTATION. 

It  is  constantly  being  urged  that  crop  rotation 
is  the  salvation  of  the  soil  and  so  is  one  of  the 
greatest  aids  to  the  business  of  farming.  And 
yet  crop  rotation  as  practiced  in  the  past  has  been 
responsible  for  nearly  all  our  worn  and  worn-out 
soils.  In  districts  where  it  has  been  the  most 
practiced  we  have  the  greatest  area  of  these  soils. 
Crop  Eotation  is  a  gay  deceiver.  She  has  cast 
her  alluring  smile  towards  the  husbandman,  he 
embraced  her,  hoping  she  would  restore  his  sick 
and  dying  soils,  but  she  only  led  him  farther  into 
the  worn  soil  *  'red  light  district"  to  be  the  greater 
contaminated  with  its  shame  and  sickening  life. 

We  believe  in  crop  rotation  rightly  practiced. 
But  it  is  not  a  **cure  all"  for  the  diseases  of  the 
soil.  The  rotation  of  corn,  oats,  wheat  and  clover, 
so  long  practiced  in  the  corn  belt,  under  the  belief 
that  it  was  the  right  system  of  farming,  and  was 
all  that  was  needed  to  keep  up  soil  fertility,  has 
driven  millions  of  acres  of  our  best  lands  into 
fertility  bankruptcy,  just  as  it  drove  much  of  our 
abandoned  soils  of  the  East  into  fertility  bank- 
ruptcy. It  is  a  system  of  soil  robbery  so  long 
practiced  along  the  highway  of  agriculture  that 
it  has  become  like  the  vice  '*to  be  hated  needs  but 


OTHER  AIDS  TO  FARMING         165 

to  be  seen;  yet  seen  too  oft,  familiar  with  her 
face,  we  first  endure,  then  pity,  then  embrace. ' ' 

Crop  rotation  to  be  an  aid  to  the  business  of 
farming  must  be  supplemented  with  that  farm 
procedure  that  provides  for  the  yearly  feeding  of 
the  soil  with  an  ample  supply  of  plant  food.  It 
has  failed  in  the  past  because  it  was  unaided  by 
this  feature  of  farming.  The  plant  food  to  be 
supplied  yearly  is  that  found  in,  or  provided  by 
animal  and  green  manuring,  and  the  minerals  like 
potash,  phosphorus,  limestone,  etc. 

GBOUND  LIMESTONE. 

The  use  of  ground  limestone  has  become  an  im- 
portant factor  in  soil  building  and  should  be  ap- 
plied liberally  to  our  soils.  In  the  limestone  re- 
gions of  the  world,  if  inhabited  by  a  civilized 
people,  you  will  always  find  prosperous,  sturdy 
people  and  great  wealth.  In  these  regions  the 
limestone  has  been  disintegrated  and  distributed 
through  the  soil  by  the  processes  of  nature,  which 
is  proof  that  when  applied  by  man  it  should  be 
in  its  raw  state  ground  finely  and  unbumed. 
Burned  limestone  becomes  caustic  lime  and  so  has 
the  power  to  eat  and  destroy,  and  hence  will  eat 
up  and  consume  the  organic  content  of  our  soils, 
and  thus  destroy  one  of  the  most  valuable  elements 
of  good  soil.  The  raw  ground  limestone  corrects 
the  acidity  of  soils,  thus  neutralizing  the  acids 
formed  by  decay  of  live  organic  matter,  or  in  any 
other  manner,  thus  paving  the  way  for  the  suc- 
cessful growing  of  the  legumes.  The  ground 
limestone  can  be  applied  in  any  quantity  without 
injury  to  the  soil  or  crops,  so  the  amount  to  ap- 


166       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

ply  to  your  soils  should  be  governed  by  the  con- 
tents of  your  pocket  book,  for  even  the  application 
of  as  much  as  ten  tons  to  the  acre  would  result 
in  no  harm  but  much  profit. 

RAW  ROCK  PHOSPHATE,  POTASH  AND  NITRATE  OF  SODA. 

Raw  rock  phosphate  finely  ground,  of  the  best 
quality,  applied  in  amounts  from  three  hundred 
pounds  up  to  a  ton  to  the  acre,  and  used  in  con- 
nection with  animal  and  green  manuring  crops, 
aids  much  in  soil  building  and  fertility  mainten- 
ance. 

Potash  and  nitrate  of  soda  are  also  valuable 
aids. 

COMMERCIAL  FERTILIZERS. 

The  marketing  and  use  of  commercial  fertilizers 
have  risen  to  an  immense  volume  in  the  business 
of  farming.  "While  all  sections  of  our  country  are 
using  it,  yet  some  sections  use  it  in  immense  quan- 
tities. It  is  a  subject  that  requires  the  most  care- 
ful consideration.  If  it  is  a  valuable  aid  to  the 
business  of  farming,  then  the  fact  should  be  uni- 
versally known  that  the  soil  may  receive  more  of 
its  benefits.  But  if  there  is  no  merit  in  its  use, 
certainly  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  business  of 
farming  ought  to  know  it,  that  the  great  waste  of 
its  use  be  stayed. 

We  have  tried  to  consider  this  subject  free  from 
bias  or  prejudice.  We  do  not  deal  directly  or  in- 
directly in  any  article  of  trade  or  commerce  pro- 
posed as  a  substitute  for  commercial  fertilizers. 
We  have  done  much  experimenting  with  it,  and 
have  studied  everything  upon  the  subject  we  could 


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OTHER  AIDS  TO  FARMING  167 

lay  our  hands  upon,  and  so  from  an  unbiased 
standpoint  have  reached  the  following  conclusions. 

Too  many  brands  of  commercial  fertilizers  con- 
tain as  their  chief  constituent  a  filler  of  no  fertiliz- 
ing value  whatever.  As  an  illustration,  peat 
taken  from  swamps  is  largely  used  as  a  filler. 
Peat  is  simply  rotten  vegetation  or  organic  matter 
unmixed  with  soil  minerals  which  has  reached  that 
stage  where  it  is  dead  organic  matter.  It  is  de- 
void of  bacterial  life.  It  has  been  arrested  in  its 
stages  of  decomposition  before  it  was  worked  up 
into  humus.  If  the  vegetation  of  which  it  is  en- 
tirely composed  had  been  mixed  with  soil  minerals 
at  the  time  or  immediately  after  it  was  growing, 
then  it  would  have  been  a  valuable  soil  constituent, 
and  a  fertile  soil  would  have  been  constructed. 

But  being  dead  organic  matter  it  has  no  fertiliz- 
ing value  when  applied  to  other  soils.  If  applied 
in  large  quantities  to  soil  it  would  have  some  value 
as  aiding  in  the  conserving  of  moisture,  but  it  would 
of  itself  furnish  no  plant  food.  Soils  consisting 
of  peat  may  grow  one  or  two  crops  when  first  sub- 
jected to  cultivation,  but  attempting  to  grow  crops 
upon  them  afterwards  is  an  expensive  experiment, 
as  the  author  has  found  by  personal  experience. 
They  can  be  put  through  what  the  laymen  of  agri- 
culture call  a  ** taming  process,"  by  which  they 
eventually  can  be  worked  into  fairly  good  soils. 
This  *  *  taming  process ' '  is  tramping  them  with  live 
stock,  the  application  to  them  of  rock  phosphate, 
potash,  animal  manures,  and,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  green  manuring.  We  have  known  muck 
soils  to  be  greatly  benefited  with  the  growing  and 
plowing  under  of  rye  upon  them. 


168       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

Now,  the  using  of  this  peat  as  filler  by  manu- 
facturers of  commercial  fertilizers  is  a  very  profit- 
able operation  for  the  fertilizer  manufacturer.  It 
is  selling  this  peat  at  from  sixteen  to  forty  dollars 
per  ton  and  the  user  applying  it  in  the  manner  usu- 
ally applied  gets  no  value  in  return  for  its  use. 
Even  assuming  it  has  a  value,  would  it  not  be  more 
economical  for  the  farmer  to  buy  the  peat  in  car 
or  wagon  loads  and  save  the  immense  profit  made 
upon  it  when  sold  as  commercial  fertilizers  ? 

Commercial  fertilizers  at  their  best  are  but  soil 
or  crop  stimulants.  Physicians  use  certain  medi- 
cines as  stimulants  or  aids  in  curing  the  diseases 
of  men.  But  they  never  hope  to  make  a  perfect 
or  permanent  cure  with  their  use  alone.  No  soil 
can  be  built  up,  or  its  fertility  even  maintained, 
by  the  use  of  stimulants.  They  may  be  used  as 
valuable  aids,  but  like  men,  soils  must  be  fed  with 
the  food  from  which  real  soil  tissue  can  be  builded. 
So  the  constant  use  of  commercial  fertilizers 
alone  makes  the  soil  ** poorer  and  poorer.''  No 
permanent  system  of  agriculture  can  be  builded 
upon  the  foundation  of  commercial  fertilizers 
used  alone.  When  honestly  compounded,  and 
used  with  animal  and  green  manuring,  we  do  not 
condemn  their  use,  but  some  times  wonder  whether 
their  constituents  can  not  be  obtained  for  the 
soil  in  other  ways  and  at  cheaper  prices. 

NITROGEN. 

Nitrogen  is  one  of  the  three  soil  elements,  the 
most  precious,  the  most  costly,  and  hence,  one  of 
the  greatest  aids  to  the  business  of  farming.  And 
yet  contradictory  as  it  may  seem,  it  can  be  secured 


OTHER  AIDS  TO  FARMING  169 

for  the  business  cheaper  than  any  other  soil  food 
element. 

There  is  three  million  dollars '  worth  of  it  rest- 
ing upon  every  acre  of  our  soil  and  owned  by 
every  owner  of  the  soil  for  the  title  to  your  land 
according  to  the  ^*law  of  the  land/'  extends  up- 
ward as  far  as  you  can  see,  and  downward  as  far 
as  you  can  dig.  This  nitrogen  is  one  of  the  main 
elements  of  the  air  and  is  available  for  the  use  of 
man,  and  God  in  his  infinite  goodness  and  wisdom 
has  provided  the  way  and  the  means  by  which  it 
can  be  taken  from  the  air  and  put  into  the  soil 
for  the  use  of  growing  crops  and  for  the  benefit 
of  man.  The  way  by  which  this  nitrogen  is  taken 
from  the  air  and  put  into  the  soil  is  one  of  God's 
mysteries,  the  unfolding  of  which  to  mankind  is 
more  interesting  than  the  unfolding  of  any  of  his 
other  mysteries  of  sky,  earth,  or  water,  and  its 
study  is  more  entertaining  than  any  entertain- 
ment devised  by  man. 

The  way  is  through  the  legumes — those  plants 
that  bear  their  seeds  in  a  pod,  which  have  upon 
their  roots  the  little  tubercles  or  nodules,  which 
are  nothing  more  than  the  cottages,  or  mansions, 
or  dwelling  places  of  the  teaming  millions  of  bac- 
teria that  the  unaided  human  eye  can  not  see. 
This  infinitesimal  insect  life  are  the  busy  workers 
that  live  lives  of  service;  the  service  of  drawing 
the  nitrogen  from  the  air  and  working  it  up  for 
the  soiPs  use,  and  the  use  of  growing  plants. 
They  give  service  to  man,  thus  exemplifying  the 
wonderful  law  of  service  about  which  we  have  al- 
ready written. 

And  here  again  the  human  brain  so  wonderful 


170       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

in  devising  schemes  to  aid  nature  in  her  work  of 
service  has  furnished  the  device  by  which  we  too 
can  give  service  to  this  legume  insect  life  and  give 
another  aid  to  the  business  of  farming.  Soils 
often  reach  a  stage  where  they  are  unfavorable  for 
this  bacterial  life.  Soil  environments  are  such 
that  these  bacteria  can  not  live  and  flourish  in 
them  and  so  these  conditions  must  be  corrected  by 
the  use  of  the  correcting  agencies  of  limestone, 
manures,  etc.,  about  which  we  have  also  writ- 
ten. 

But  when  we  have  corrected  those  soil  condi- 
tions the  bacteria  are  not  there,  they  must  be  se- 
cured and  moved  into  their  new  homes  we  have 
prepared  for  them.  We  do  this  either  by  the 
transfer  of  soil  largely  inhabited  by  them  or  by 
what  is  known  as  artificial  cultures  prepared  in 
laboratories,  that  is,  these  bacteria  are  bred  in 
laboratories  and  are  transferred  to  seeds  which 
are  planted  in  soils  made  favorable  for  these  bac- 
teria. These  prepared  cultures  are  put  up  in 
forms  with  directions  for  their  application  to 
seeds,  which  are  easily  followed  and  if  they  are 
active,  and  are  applied  strictly  according  to  direc- 
tions, and  in  favorable  soil,  can  be  secured  for 
the  legumes  as  successfully  as  by  any  other  proc- 
ess, as  the  author  knows  from  actual  experience 
in  the  field.  There  have  been  failures  in  this 
method  just  as  there  have  been  and  always  will 
be  in  all  lines  of  farming. 

We  too  often  allow  the  failure  we  make  in  the 
business  of  farming  to  overwhelm  us.  We  fail 
in  a  crop  this  year  then  do  not  grow  it  the  next 
when  conditions  are  favorable  for  its  greater  sue- 


OTHER  AIDS  TO  FARMING  171 

cess.  We  try  an  experiment,  or  plant  a  new  plant, 
and  fail,  and  then  condemn  it  in  the  most  bitter 
terms  when  we  ourselves  are  most  likely  to  blame 
for  the  failure.  Oh !  that  we  would  but  remember 
"that  every  failure  is  but  a  step  to  success,"  and 
*^that  failure  is  in  a  sense,  the  highway  to  suc- 
cess." 

No  matter  in  what  business  we  may  be  engaged, 
we  must  keep  everlastingly  at  the  game  if  we 
would  succeed.  The  man  that  makes  a  success 
at  farming  maps  out  a  plan  of  crop  growing  for 
each  year  and  for  a  series  of  years,  and  follows 
it  closely  no  matter  what  the  vicissitudes  of  any 
season  may  be,  for  he  knows  that  if  he  fails  one 
year  he  will  succeed  the  next,  and  that  the  gen- 
eral average  of  several  seasons  will  show  the 
profit. 

We  must  needs  expect  failure  in  many  of  our  un- 
dertakings, but  if  we  are  to  let  this  discourage  us, 
we  had  as  well  quit  before  we  begin.  Every  prog- 
ress that  has  been  made  in  agriculture  or  in  any 
other  human  enterprise,  has  been  made  through 
numerous  failures.  Failure  is  the  price  of  suc- 
cess, a  motto  we  must  remember  if  we  are  to  suc- 
ceed. 

THE  FALLOW. 

The  art  of  fallowing  has  been  regarded  as  a 
great  aid  to  the  business  of  farming.  To  fallow 
originally  meant  to  plow  or  till  the  land  through 
the  summer  season,  without  sowing  it  to  any  crop. 
Sinclair  said,  "  By  a  complete  summer  fallow,  land 
is  rendered  tender  and  mellow.  The  fallow  gives 
it  a  better  tilth  than  can  be  given  by  a  fallow 


172       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

crop,''  and  Mortimer  said,  **The  plowing  of  fal- 
lows is  a  benefit  to  land. ' ' 

One  Roman  writer  said  that  the  foundation  of 
Roman  agriculture  was  the  fallow.  But  the  fal- 
lowing as  practiced  by  the  Romans  meant  plowing 
and  constant  and  thorough  tillage  during  the  fal- 
low season,  which  was  indeed  valuable  and  a 
great  aid  to  the  business  of  farming,  but  as  good 
results  can  be  obtained  by  the  good  plowing  and 
thorough  tillage  and  the  planting  of  a  crop.  The 
Roman  idea  of  fallowing  was  to  leave  off  the 
crop  for  a  season. 

To  fallow  really  means  resting  the  land  or  al- 
lowing land  to  lie  a  year  or  more  untilled  and  un- 
seeded to  aay  crop.  It  was  simply  the  old  notion 
that  land  uncropped  for  a  year  was  resting,  al- 
though it  really  was  working  harder  than  when 
growing  crops,  for  when  the  husbandman  turned 
it  over  to  the  supposed  rest  period.  Nature  took 
it  in  hand  and  put  it  to  growing  weeds.  It  has 
never  been  Nature 's  purpose  that  laad  should  rest 
unless  it  was  in  the  winter  season. 

Fallowing  as  practiced  by  the  plowing  and  til- 
lage method  if  continued  through  a  season  would 
likely  result  in  a  most  wasteful  method  of  farm- 
ing, especially  if  the  soil  had  not  been  deeply 
plowed  and  was  subject  to  washing.  Heavy  rains 
would  seriously  damage  it.  Deep  plowing,  thor- 
ough tillage  for  a  short  season,  supplemented 
with  the  good  cover  crop,  will  give  the  best  re- 
sults to  soils,  for  the  cover  crop  supplements  the 
short  fallow  with  the  great  advantages  of  soil 
covering  and  added  fertility  that  the  cover  crop 
gives  to  the  soil. 


RESULTS  OF  BACTERIA  INOCULATION. 
The  peas  on  the  right  were  inoculated  with  artificial  cultures, 
while  those  on  the  left  were  not  inoculated.  Both  grew  side  by 
side  upon  the  same  character  of  soil,  from  same  seed  planted 
at  the  same  time.  Both  bunches  have  the  same  number  of  plant 
stems. 


OTHEE  AIDS  TO  FAEMING  173 

One  Eoman  agriculture  writer  was  so  enthused 
with  the  fallowing  idea  that  he  even  advocated 
that  the  lover  should  allow  fallow  seasons  to  in- 
tervene in  his  courtship,  an  advice  not  likely  to 
be  followed  by  the  ardent  loving  ST^ain  and  las- 
sie. 

Fallowing,  according  to  the  first  method  men- 
tioned, is  perhaps  necessary  in  carrying  on  dry 
farming  in  the  semi-arid  regions,  but  in  regions  of 
ample  rainfall  we  do  not  consider  it  profitable 
unless  combined  with  a  cover  or  green  manuring 
crop. 


A  notion  obtains  that  the  moon  has  an  influence 
on  land  as  well  as  water  and  so  becomes  an  aid 
to  the  business  of  farming. 

Most  of  us  regard  this  as  mere  superstition  and 
say  we  do  not  plant  our  crops  in  the  moon,  but  in 
the  ground  when  it  has  been  properly  prepared 
and  is  in  good  condition  for  planting  the  seed. 
Yet  there  are  many  men  who  have  made  an  in- 
tense study  of  the  moon's  influence  on  land, 
plants,  and  other  features  of  farming,  and  argue 
if  the  moon  influences  the  great  oceans  and  causes 
the  ebb  and  flow  of  tides,  why  does  it  not  affect  the 
land? 

The  following  account  of  the  moon's  supposed 
influence  given  by  Samuel  Campbell  is  intensely 
interesting,  although  the  results  named  might  be 
accounted  for  by  the  influence  of  other  agencies. 

"To  get  the  best  results :  Sow  or  plant  all  grain  (like  wheat, 
barley,  oats,  corn,  timothy,  clover,  hemp,  flax,  and  similar 
things  that  go  to  top)  in  the  light  of  the  moon  (from  new 


174       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

to  full  moon).  Plant  everything  that  goes  to  root  (like  pota- 
toes, beets,  turnips,  carrots,  onions,  peanuts,  etc.),  in  the  dark 
of  the  moon  (last  quarter  before  new  moon). 

"As  a  test:  Say  you  have  a  twenty-acre  field  for  wheat; 
sow  one-half  in  dark  of  moon,  and  other  half  in  light  of  moon. 
Any  man  passing  along  by  the  field  when  the  grain  is  ripe, 
can  see  the  difference  in  quality  and  height.  The  lark  sit- 
ting on  the  fence,  singing,  can  see  the  difference;  and  should 
you  scare  her  from  her  perch  she  would  certainly  fly  into 
the  tallest  grain  to  hide,  which  would  be  that  which  was 
planted  in  the  light  of  the  moon. 

"I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  so  doing  will  insure  your  crops ; 
seed  and  soil  conditions  must  likewise  be  right  and  seasonable. 

"Another  test:  Dig  your  post-holes  and  place  fence-posts 
and  nail  on  your  boards  in  the  light  of  the  moon.  After  a 
winter's  freezing  and  thawing  your  fence  is  tipped  to  one 
side  and  the  posts  have  heaved  up,  more  or  less.  Again, 
dig  the  post-holes  in  the  dark  of  the  moon.  Let  it  freeze 
and  thaw, — your  fence-posts  remain  just  where  you  placed 
them. 

"A  third  test:  Say  you  are  going  to  shingle  shed  or  house. 
Shingle  one-half  of  same  in  the  dark  of  the  moon,  then  finish 
shingling  the  other  half  in  the  light  of  the  moon.  The  shin- 
gles placed  on  roof  in  the  dark  of  the  moon  will  lay  flat  and 
smooth;  the  other  half  of  roof  shingled  will  turn  up  a  little 
at  ends. 

"In  Sonoma  County,  Cal.,  I  saw  where  a  man  had  trimmed 
two  rows  of  prune  trees  in  the  dark  of  the  moon.  The  tip 
ends  of  trimmed  limbs  died  one  and  a  half  to  two  inches  back. 
He  pruned  the  balance  of  the  orchard  in  the  light  of  the  moon, 
and  the  limbs  healed  over  on  the  tips  where  cut  off. 

"Again :  Place  a  large  two-inch-thick  plank,  or  a  large  flat 
sandstone,  on  your  blue-grass  lawn  in  the  light  of  the  moon, 
and  let  it  remain  during  the  summer  months.  The  grass 
underneath  will  turn  a  whitish  yellow  and  continue  to  live 
and  grow.  Place  same  during  the  dark  of  the  moon,  and  let 
it  remain  same  length  of  time,  and  the  grass  under  plank  or 
stone  will  die,  roots  and  all. 

^TLiet  the  moon  shine  upon  all  kinds  of  edge  tools  for  a 
length  of  time  and  it  will  take  the  temper  out. 


OTHER  AIDS  TO  FAEMING         175 

"Kill  a  corn-fed  hog  or  kill  a  corn-fed  fat  beef  in  the 
dark  of  the  moon,  and  when  you  come  to  fry  or  cook  the 
meat — it  goes  to  grease  and  shrivels  up  and  is  not  fit  to  eat, 
— dry  and  no  substance  in  it.  Kill  same  in  the  light  of  the 
moon  and  you  will  have  nice  plump  meat. 

"From  observation  I  believe  that  not  only  the  sun  and  moon, 
but  the  planets  at  certain  times  when  near  this  earth,  have 
their  disturbing  effects  on  all  living,  growing  and  maturing 
nature  or  animate  or  inanimate  objects. 

"All  nature  must  have  rest  at  some  time.  A  man  who  shaves 
himself  knows  how  to  hone  and  strop  his  razor.  At  times  it 
seems  to  be  dull,  and  it  pulls.  Let  him  lay  the  razor  aside 
for  a  length  of  time;  then  when  he  picks  it  up  it  shaves  easy 
and  he  wonders  why  it  is  now  so  sharp.  This  is  nature's  rest. 
Man  and  beast,  flesh  and  blood,  must  have  rest.  The  earth 
in  many  localities  freezes  up  in  winter  time;  the  rivers  and 
lakes  freeze  up  and  all  nature  is  covered  with  snow ;  the  crops 
will  not  grow, — ^this  is  nature's  rest. 

"The  commanders  of  all  ships  can  buy  books  a  year  ahead, 
giving  the  serving  of  the  tides  at  every  port;  all  calculations 
being  made  from  the  moon.  If  the  moon  has  such  an  effect 
upon  the  great  oceans,  why  shouldn't  it  affect  the  land?  It 
shines  upon  both  land  and  sea. 

"Any  man  who  has  the  time  can  demonstrate  this  to  his 
own  satisfaction,  and  he  will  find  it  true." 

When  the  author  read  the  foregoing  account 
some  seven  years  ago  he  determined  to  put  the 
moon's  influence  to  a  test  in  the  planting  of  eighty 
acres  of  garden  peas  for  his  canning  factory. 

The  eighty  acres  was  divided  into  fields  and 
numbered  or  designated  by  name,  and  a  careful 
record  of  the  time  of  planting  was  kept.  The 
seed  used  was  uniform  and  of  the  best  quality, 
and  character  of  soil  was  such  that  a  good  crop  of 
peas  was  possible  upon  each  and  every  part  of  the 
entire  eighty  acres.  Upon  the  different  fields 
peas  were  planted  in  all  the  different  stages  of  the 


176       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAKMING 

moon  obtaining  during  the  planting  season,  as  the 
planting  season  extended  over  the  full  period  of 
one  month,  and  planting  was  begun  so  as  to  get 
the  advantage  of  planting  in  the  light  and  dark 
of  the  moon,  and  its  first  quarter,  half  moon,  full 
moon,  last  half  and  last  quarter. 

The  planting  came  fully  up  to  what  was  neces- 
sary to  make  a  good  experiment  and  growing  sea- 
son was  favorable.  According  to  the  theory  out- 
lined above,  the  peas  planted  in  the  light  of  the 
moon  should  have  borne  the  bumper  crop,  but 
when  this  planting  was  nearly  ready  to  harvest  a 
severe  hail  storm  swept  across  the  farm,  and  while 
the  hail  did  not  destroy  the  vines,  yet  every  pod 
on  the  vines  had  been  hit  by  five  or  more  hail 
stones,  which  resulted  in  the  destruction  of  the 
crop,  as  peas  never  mature  when  hail  stones  hit 
the  pods  before  the  peas  are  ready  to  harvest. 

This  storm  was  peculiar  in  the  respect  that  there 
was  no  hail  on  either  side  of  the  farm,  but  of 
course  we  could  not  say  that  the  influence  of  the 
moon  had  anything  to  do  with  this  fact. 

Notwithstanding  the  hail  storm  damaged  the 
peas  planted  in  the  light  of  the  moon,  yet  it  was 
easy  to  see  that  the  crop  would  have  been  splendid 
if  it  had  not  met  with  misfortune. 

The  peas  planted  at  the  time  of  the  other  stages 
of  the  moon  also  made  a  good  crop.  In  fine,  we 
could  see  no  difference  in  the  productiveness  of 
the  crop  upon  any  of  the  fields.  One  planting  was 
as  good  as  the  other. 

We  have  planted  potatoes  both  in  the  light  and 
dark  of  the  moon  and  never  observed  any  differ- 
ence, yet  we  have  always  made  it  a  rule  to  plant 


OTHEE  AIDS  TO  FAEMING         177 

potatoes  in  the  dark  of  the  moon,  and  we  plant 
quite  a  large  acreage  every  year,  and  there  has 
never  been  a  year  in  the  past  six  years  but  what 
we  had  a  good  crop,  and  our  neighbors'  potatoes 
generally  were  a  failure,  although  we  never  ob- 
served whether  they  were  planted  by  the  moon. 
But  we  have  always  attributed  our  success  to  the 
fact  that  we  heavily  manured  our  soil  with  green 
manures,  plowed,  cultivated,  and  sprayed  well. 

We  are  not  prepared  to  say  that  the  moon  has 
such  influences  upon  land  as  well  as  upon  sea 
which  can  be  utilized  as  an  aid  to  the  business  of 
farming,  but  the  fact  that  there  have  been  men  in 
all  ages  of  the  world's  history  who,  from  study, 
observation,  and  experiment,  have  reached  the 
conclusion  that  it  does  have  such  influences,  it  be- 
comes worthy  of  some  consideration. 

IMPKOVED  FARM  MACHINERY. 

Improved  farm  machinery  has  been  a  mighty 
aid  to  the  business  of  farming  as  we  have  shown 
in  the  chapter  upon  the  care  of  farm  machinery, 
but  in  improved  farm  machinery  there  is  concealed 
a  peril  to  the  business  to  which  attention  must  be 
called.  We  recently  heard  a  noted  farm  lecturer 
declare  from  the  platform  that  the  invention  of 
the  reaper  has  led  to  the  feeding  of  the  world's 
hungry.  But  it  will  also  eventually  lead  to  the 
world's  starvation  unless  the  owners  of  the  reaper 
become  soil  builders  instead  of  soil  destroyers, 
for,  the  advent  of  the  reaper  has  made  extensive 
farming  possible  upon  a  larger  scale  than  has 
ever  been  known  in  the  world's  history,  and  ex- 
tensive farming  has  always  led  to  soil  exhaustion. 


178       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

Extensive  farming  fosters  greed  and  avarice, 
and  when  these  sins  get  possession  of  the  exten- 
sive farmer,  he  drives  his  soil  to  the  limit  of  its 
production  of  the  crops  that  exhaust  the  soil  of  its 
fertility.  He  is  content  with  the  small  profit  per 
acre,  and,  to  fill  his  coffers,  extends  his  acreage, 
waxes  rich,  and  though  his  soil  is  dying  for  want 
of  soil  food,  yet  he  whips  it  on  to  its  task  of  pro- 
duction of  the  crops  he  can  sell  for  money. 

The  invention  and  use  of  improved  farm  ma- 
chinery will  lead  to  the  pillage  of  the  soil  unless  it 
be  operated  by  men  imbued  with  the  true  theory 
of  soil  maintenance,  so  if  it  does  not  become  the 
main  object  of  the  business  of  farming  to  train 
men  along  the  lines  of  promoting  soil  fertility  and 
a  permanent  agriculture,  improved  farm  machin- 
ery in  the  end  availeth  nothing. 

If  it  be  true  as  some  claim  that  we  have  reached 
the  age  of  the  '^Dawn  of  Plenty"  on  account  of 
the  invention  and  use  of  improved  farm  machin- 
ery, we  can  not  hope  to  maintain  that  delightful 
state  where  every  man,  woman  and  child  go  to 
bed  every  night  fed  with  enough  food  to  satisfy, 
unless  we  maintain  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  for  we 
no  longer  have  the  new  lands  in  abundance.  The 
lands  that  have  been  farmed  for  a  generation  or 
more  must  mainly  feed  us  or  we  perish,  and  they 
will  never  feed  us  unless  they  are  farmed  with 
different  methods  than  they  have  been  in  the  past. 
The  method  by  which  they  have  been  farmed  has 
led  to  the  great  loss  of  soil  fertility,  and  if  con- 
tinued, will  lead  to  the  complete  loss  of  soil  fer- 
tility. 

If  the  United  States  has  had  a  plethora  of  farm 


OTHEE  AIDS  TO  FARMING  179 

products  in  the  past  it  has  been  because  she  is  a 
large  country  possessed  of  a  varied  climate  and 
containing  a  vast  amount  of  new  soils  stored  with 
enough  fertility  to  last  for  a  number  of  years. 
She  has  never  faced  a  famine  as  the  countries  of 
the  old  world  face  them  almost  yearly.  But  what 
will  happen  when  our  lands  have  all  been  brought 
into  cultivation,  and  our  older  lands  have  been 
so  neglected  that  they  will  lose  their  crop  produc- 
ing power?  It  would  be  but  repeating  history, 
for  the  older  nations  of  the  world  were  at  one  time 
in  their  history  possessed  of  an  abundance  of  fer- 
tile soils  and  famine  was  unknown  to  them.  Even 
one  crop  failure  in  this  land  of  ours  would  bring 
us  face  to  face  with  a  famine,  because  we  have  no 
Joseph's  Egyptian  filled  storehouses  dotting  our 
land. 

It  was  recently  promulgated  by  our  agriculture 
department  that  only  a  small  per  cent,  of  our  till- 
able lands  were  under  cultivation.  But  these 
statistics  were  misleading  because  a  large  amount 
of  our  unoccupied  lands  can  not  be  successfully 
tilled,  because  rainfall  is  not  sufficient  upon  them 
for  needs  of  the  growing  crops,  and  the  problem 
of  irrigating  them  is  impracticable  because  a  suffi- 
cient amount  of  water  could  not  be  secured  for 
irrigation  projects. 

But  we  have  not  yet  reached  the  greatest  age  of 
perfected  farm  machinery.  The  time  is  right  at 
hand  when  the  small  farm  tractor,  cheap  and  sub- 
stantial, will  do  the  plowing  and  preliminary  till- 
age before  seed  planting,  and  the  dawn  of  cultivat- 
ing implements  moved  with  the  motive  power  of 
electricity  made  upon  the  farms  is  about  to  ilium- 


180       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

inate  the  landscapes  of  the  business  of  farming. 
An  idle  dream,  do  you  say?  It  was  so  said  of  the 
improved  harvester  and  the  farm  tractor.  But 
the  dreams  came  true  and  the  business  of  farming 
was  bettered,  and  the  weary  toil  of  binding  wheat 
by  hand  and  following  the  two  horse  plow,  that 
drove  thousands  of  us  from  the  farm,  is  no  longer 
a  part  of  our  farm  economy.  Therefore,  for  im- 
proved farm  machinery  to  be  an  aid  to  the  busi- 
ness of  farming  it  must  be  supplemented  with  wise 
methods  of  soil  building  or  fertility  maintenance. 

THE  SILO. 

We  have  already  said  something  about  the  silo 
on  the  farm.  When  its  merits  are  more  fully  un- 
derstood no  farm  will  be  without  one  or  more  of 
them. 

The  best  time  to  feed  stock  for  best  results  is 
in  the  winter  season.  The  cold  stimulates  their 
appetites,  there  is  not  the  insect  pest  that  summer 
season  begets,  nor  heat  to  annoy  and  take  off  fat. 
In  fine,  the  winter  season  is  the  most  favorable 
time  for  animal  life  upon  the  farm.  If  this  can 
then  be  supplemented  with  feed  that  is  cheap,  ap- 
petizing, fattening  and  healthful,  which  will 
produce  milk  in  abundance,  and  which  can  be  pro- 
cured largely  from  the  utilization  of  some  of  the 
by-products  of  the  farm,  at  the  least  labor  and  can 
be  fed  with  little  labor  and  waste,  we  have  the 
ideal  combination  for  successful  stock  production 
with  its  allied  products. 

All  this  can  be  done  by  the  use  of  the  silo.  The 
crop  chiefly  used  for  filling  the  silo  is  ready  for 
use  at  a  time  when  there  is  no  rush  work  to  be 


THE  SILO 

The  silo  rightly  constructed  is  the  forerunner  of  soil  fertility, 
the   conserver   of   the   by-products    of    the    farm,    the   mint   that 
coins  live  stock  into  dollars  at  the  minimum  labor  and  expense, 
and  a  promoter  of  scenic  beauty  of  farm  home  surroundings. 
(Courtesy  National  Fire  Proofing  Company,  Pittsburgh,  Pa.) 


OTHER  AIDS  TO  FARMING         181 

done  upon  the  farm.  It  can  be  put  np  econom- 
ically and  without  exposure  to  severe  weather. 
It  utilizes  a  by-product,  the  com  stalk,  usually 
wasted  upon  the  farm.  The  food  the  silo  makes 
can  be  fed  with  little  labor  and  without  waste  if 
proper  care  is  taken  in  building  the  silo  and  in 
filling  same,  and  this  food  is  ready  for  use  at  the 
most  favorable  time  for  feeding. 

The  silo  should  be  well  built  upon  a  most  sub- 
stantial foundation  and  of  the  best  material.  It 
ought  not  to  be  constructed  of  wood  because  the 
wood  silo  requires  care  and  watchfulness  in  the 
summer  time  to  keep  it  from  going  to  staves,  is 
easily  blown  over  by  winds  and  storms,  and  re- 
quires painting. 

The  silo  should  be  attractively  built,  as  such  a 
silo  adds  much  to  the  looks  of  the  farm  premises, 
which  we  have  tried  to  emphasize  as  being  one  of 
the  essential  things  of  the  business  of  farming. 

The  material  for  filling  the  silo  should  be  put 
into  it  in  the  right  manner,  which  is  but  the  simple 
process  of  keeping  the  material  level  and  each 
layer  well  packed  in  all  its  parts,  in  the  process  of 
filling  the  silo. 

STANDAEDIZATION. 

Standardization  upon  the  farm  means  the  classi- 
fying of  the  different  farm  products  produced 
upon  the  farm  with  the  different  classes  of  quality 
which  may  be  established  by  custom  and  dictation 
of  trade  and  commerce  or  general  consent. 

Wheat,  corn,  oats  and  other  grains  are  stand- 
ardized into  classes  or  grades  of  quality  and  the 
same  is  true  of  every  farm  product.    In  fixing 


182       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

the  standards  of  different  grades  many  things  are 
taken  into  consideration,  like  appearance,  uniform- 
ity, mixing  of  varieties  or  breeds,  moisture  con- 
tent, grading,  etc. 

While  the  standardization  of  farm  products  may 
be  made  a  great  aid  to  the  business  of  farming, 
yet  it  is  too  oft  made  the  cloak  with  which  to  cover 
a  multitude  of  sins  of  dishonest  farm  produce 
dealers. 

In  standardizing  corn  the  moisture  content  of 
the  corn  determines  largely  the  grade  to  which 
each  particular  lot  of  corn  belongs.  Often  nice 
appearing  corn  seemingly  free  of  large  amounts 
of  moisture  is  shipped  to  distant  buyers  which  is 
declared  to  contain  so  large  an  amount  of  mois- 
ture as  to  give  it  the  lowest  grade  upon  which  a 
large  reduction  in  price  is  made.  If  the  shipper 
does  not  have  a  moisture  tester  and  so  does  not 
have  his  corn  tested  before  shipping,  he  is  at  the 
mercy  of  the  dishonest  grain  dealer  who  can  give 
the  corn  shipped  any  moisture  test  he  may  desire. 

Similar  conditions  of  affairs  obtain  in  the  ship- 
ment of  other  farm  produce,  and  is  one  of  the 
menaces  of  the  business  of  farming  that  can  be 
eliminated  largely  by  drastic  legislation  and  co- 
operation of  the  honest  men  engaged  in  the  busi- 
ness of  buying  farm  produce. 

But  notwithstanding  we  may  have  the  dishonest 
buyer  of  farm  produce,  yet  the  fact  remains  that 
there  are  still  scores  of  honest  men  buying  farm 
produce  who  are  constantly  on  the  lookout  for 
quality  and  standardized  farm  produce.  The  day 
when  any  kind  of  farm  produce  taken  to  market 
with  utter  disregard  of  quality,  attractiveness,  or 


OTHEE  AIDS  TO  FAEMING  183 

merit,  has  passed  away.  The  farmer  to  be  suc- 
cessful in  the  marketing  of  his  produce  must  grade 
it,  and  brand  each  grade  honestly,  and  misrepre- 
sent nothing. 

It  should  be  the  aim  of  every  man  engaged  in 
the  business  of  farming  to  do  everything  that 
can  be  done  to  produce  the  quality  and  then  grade 
his  produce  and  sell  only  the  best  grades,  and  as 
far  as  possible,  utilize  his  inferior  grades  upon  the 
farm  in  the  feeding  of  stock. 

** Fancy''  produce  of  all  kinds  marketed  in  the 
most  attractive  manner  as  to  packages,  appear- 
ance, or  proper  handling,  always  do,  and  always 
will  command  the  highest  price,  and  the  grower 
and  seller  of  such  products  will  soon  achieve  such 
a  reputation  that  the  demand  for  his  produce  will 
exceed  his  supply. 

Standardization  enters  into  everything.  There 
are  standards  in  brains  and  the  man  possessed  of 
the  best  brain  in  any  of  the  professions  and 
trades  is  enabled  to  do  his  work  with  the  greatest 
skill  and  power  and  so  cormnands  the  greatest 
wage.  The  best  merchandise  brings  the  great- 
est and  most  profitable  price.  The  best  musician, 
and  the  author  that  writes  the  best  book,  attract 
the  greatest  number  of  hearers  and  readers.  The 
best  soil  is  in  the  best  demand  at  the  best  price. 
So  the  man  engaged  in  the  business  of  farming 
who  produces  the  finest  grains,  vegetables,  fruits 
and  farm  animals,  though  he  live  the  farthest  re- 
moved from  market  will  always  find  the  buyer 
willing  to  pay  the  price,  wending  his  way  through 
inferior  un standardized  farm  produce  to  his  door- 
way. 


184       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

It  is  waste  of  time,  energy  and  money,  to  work 
for  better  markets  safeguarded  from  dishonest 
dealers,  until  we  first  standardize  farm  produce, 
for  when  we  accomplish  standardization  we  have 
more  than  half  won  the  fight  for  the  best  safe- 
guarded markets.  When  the  farmer  begins  to 
standardize  his  products  he  becomes  the  true  and 
honest  tiller  of  the  soil,  for  he  soon  learns  that 
he  can  not  successfully  standardize  his  produce, 
unless  he  installs  upon  his  farm  the  methods  of 
fertilization,  tillage,  protection  from  insect  pest 
and  the  like,  by  which  standardization  is  brought 
to  its  highest  perfection.  So  standardization 
means  greater  farm  efficiency,  more  scientific 
farming,  and  the  greater  uplift  of  the  business. 


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CHAPTEE  XIII 

THE  BY-PRODUCTS  OP  THE  FARM   AND   THEIR 
UTILIZATION   IN   A  BUSINESS   WAY 

THE  Standard  Oil  Company  did  not  begin  to 
wax  rich  until  it  solved  the  question  of  turn- 
ing its  by-products  into  those  numerous  useful 
articles  of  trade  from  which  it  has  received  un- 
told wealth.  In  its  early  history  in  the  production 
of  its  chief  product,  coal  oil,  there  was  an  addi- 
tional or  by-product  produced  that  was  thought 
to  be  without  value.  It  was  a  great  waste. 
Human  ingenuity  set  about  to  conserve  this  waste 
and  discovered  the  great  wealth  that  lie  within 
it,  and  gasoline,  paraffine,  in  fine,  two  hundred 
chemical  factors,  were  produced  from  it  and  its 
by-products  are  worth  more  than  the  oil  itself. 
The  company  can  pour  its  coal  oil  into  the  sewer 
and  yet  pay  large  dividends  on  its  stock.  Is  it  any 
wonder  that  the  Standard  Oil  Company  became 
the  richest  corporation  the  world  has  ever  known  1 

For  years  the  mills  ground  the  farmer's  wheat, 
and  dumped  the  brand,  the  wheat's  by-product, 
into  the  river,  regarding  it  a  useless  thing.  Now 
it  is  worth  more  per  pound  than  the  flour,  it  be- 
ing richer  in  food  value  both  for  man  and  beast. 

Ever  since  the  cotton  has  been  subjected  to 
man's  use,  until  a  few  years  ago,  its  seeds  had  been 
regarded  of  no  value  other  than  for  planting,  and 

185 


186       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

tliere  being  of  them  so  great  a  surplus,  their  dis- 
position became  a  nuisance.  Now  there  are  pro- 
duced from  them  oil,  fertilizer,  oottolene  and  meal 
for  cattle,  and  they  have  become  as  valuable  as  the 
cotton  itself. 

There  is  not  a  manufacturing  plant  to-day  but 
what  directs  its  greatest  energy  towards  the  con- 
servation and  utilization  of  its  by-products,  for 
herein  lies  its  greatest  profits. 

But  the  by-products  of  the  farm  have  been  ne- 
glected and  destroyed  through  all  the  ages,  and 
thus  untold  wealth  has  been  utterly  wasted  upon 
farms.  In  the  destruction  of  cornstalks,  a  by- 
product of  the  farm  looked  upon  generally  as  a 
farm  nuisance,  there  has  been  more  wealth  de- 
stroyed than  ever  possessed  by  the  Standard  Oil 
Company. 

The  utilization  of  the  cornstalks  for  one  year  in 
siloes  would  produce  succulent  food  sufficient  to 
feed  cattle  and  other  stock  that  would  produce  a 
profit  great  enough  to  almost  pay  the  National 
debt,  besides  furnishing  another  by-product,  ma- 
nure, that  would  furnish  fertility  to  the  soil  suffi- 
cient to  produce  such  increased  crop  yields  that 
would  feed  the  people  of  our  nation.  Besides  no 
one  can  estimate  the  untold  wealth  that  would 
have  been  conserved  to  the  farmers  of  America 
had  our  stock  fields  been  held  as  sacred  ground, 
too  sacred  to  allow  a  foot  of  them  to  be  pastured, 
or  a  single  stalk  to  be  burned,  so  that  all  the  stalks 
upon  our  corn  fields  might  be  incorporated  with 
the  soil  by  proper  plowing  under,  thus  preserving 
the  great  quantities  of  nitrogen,  phosphorus,  po- 
tassium and  organic  matter  they  contain.     In  the 


BY-PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FARM       187 

seemingly  harmless  and  much  advocated  thing  of 
pasturing  stalks,  the  greatest  injury  has  been 
done  to  the  farms  of  the  corn  belt,  an  injury  in 
dollars  and  cents,  beyond  the  power  of  computa- 
tion. The  farmer  in  his  mad  desire  to  obtain  a 
little  feed  (and  we  say  little  advisedly)  for  his 
stock  with  the  least  labor,  has  turned  them  upon 
Ms  stalk  fields  in  those  seasons  of  the  year  when 
the  ground  is  wet,  muddy,  freezing  and  thawing, 
and  when  the  soil  should  be  covered  if  we  wish  to 
preserve  its  fertility.  The  tramping  of  his  stock 
upon  his  soil  has  crushed  out  its  life  blood,  its 
fertility.  And  then  to  further  intensify  the  in- 
famy heaped  upon  the  soil,  every  remaining  stalk 
not  eaten  or  destroyed  by  the  cattle,  has  been 
raked  up  and  burned  with  fire.  And  yet  we  hear 
promulgated  from  the  highest  recognized  author- 
ity, even  by  some  of  our  best  agricultural  journals, 
that  since  the  farmer  has  his  fields  fenced,  there  is 
no  reason  why  his  animals  should  not  gather  their 
own  food  from  the  stalk  fields,  and  that  not  to  pas- 
ture them  is  to  let  them  go  to  waste.  And  such 
has  been  the  practice  in  the  corn  belt  for  years. 
And  the  corn  belt  farms  are  fast  losing  their  fer- 
tility, and  the  bulk  of  their  best  by-products  are 
utilized  in  such  a  manner  as  not  only  leads  to  their 
waste,  but  to  the  destruction  of  our  farms '  best  re- 
source, the  f  ertihty  of  the  soil. 

Now,  we  are  combating  a  system  which  has  been 
practiced  for  generations,  that  has  become  a  fixed 
habit  with  the  corn  belt  farmers,  and  it  will  re- 
quire hard  licks  and  knock-down  arguments  to  dis- 
enthrone  it  from  the  mind  of  the  farmer  set  in 
his  old  ways. 


188       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

In  the  first  place  it  is  universally  acknowledged 
that  our  soils  are  fast  losing  their  fertility,  and 
why?  Because  we  have  simply  farmed  from  the 
soil  the  supplies  of  organic  matter  needed  to  give 
it  the  proper  ventilation,  looseness,  moisture- 
holding  capacity,  and  to  make  it  a  favorable  home 
for  soil  bacteria,  and  to  contain  sufficient  supplies 
of  plant  food.  Our  soils  are  becoming  hard  and 
compact.  They  run  together  easily  and  become 
like  sun-baked  bricks. 

Now,  with  the  soils  of  our  corn  fields  in  this  con- 
dition, a  man  with  any  sense  of  observation  can 
readily  see  what  will  happen  to  such  fields  if 
cattle  are  turned  in  upon  them  in  the  fall,  winter 
or  spring  of  the  year,  to  tramp  and  to  puddle 
their  soils.  It  will  not  do  to  say  that  if  the  ground 
is  frozen  their  tramping  will  not  injure  the  soil, 
for,  as  a  rule,  the  ground  is  not  frozen  at  all  times 
and  nine-tenths  of  the  farmers  are  utterly  oblivi- 
ous of  soil  conditions  of  their  fields  when  pasturing 
their  stalk  fields.  Yet  we  hear  it  said,  *  *  Take  the 
chances  and  eat  up  the  stalks,  the  damage  will  not 
equal  the  loss  of  feed  if  you  allow  the  stalks  to  go 
unpastured.'' 

But  let  us  reason  together  and  ask  ourselves  the 
question,  **If  we  are  to  build  up  our  soils  to  that 
state  where  they  will  give  adequate  return  for 
their  cultivation,  what  is  the  business  way  of  hand- 
ling our  by-product,  the  cornstalk  f 

The  cornstalk  has  great  feeding  value,  and  yet 
little  of  it  can  be  eaten  by  stock  when  fed  as  crude 
fodder.  There  is  but  one  way  in  which  the  entire 
cornstalk  can  be  treated  and  prepared  into  palat- 
able food,  and  that  is  to  silo  it.    In  future  ages  it 


BY-PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FARM       189 

will  be  said  that  the  restoration  of  the  fertility  of 
our  soils  began  when  the  silo  was  invented,  for  the 
silo  upon  the  farm  changes  our  methods  of  feed- 
ing stock.  It  takes  them  from  our  stock  fields 
and  puts  them  into  the  feed  lot  where  their  ma- 
nure may  be  conserved  and  applied  to  the  soil  in 
the  most  effective  manner. 

The  well  organized  manufacturing  plant  will 
employ  every  means  within  its  power  to  utilize  its 
entire  by-product.  To  utilize  but  a  portion  of  it 
would  be  regarded  poor  business  policy.  But  a 
farmer  will  erect  one  silo  which  will  not  utilize 
one-tenth  part  of  his  corn  crop,  then  he  will  gather 
the  balance  of  his  corn  and  waste  the  cornstalks 
upon  which  it  grew. 

Of  course  the  author  is  aware  that  it  would  not 
be  practicable  or  even  possible  in  every  case  to 
silo  the  entire  com  crop  on  our  farms,  but  a 
greater  amount  siloed  means  more  stock  upon  our 
farms  and  a  greater  fertility  for  our  farms,  and 
the  greater  fertility  means  a  larger  crop  yield, 
and  a  larger  crop  yield  means  more  money  for  the 
farmer  and  more  food  for  our  people.  If,  then, 
it  is  impractical  to  silo  the  entire  corn  crop,  and 
thus  in  the  best  possible  manner  conserve  the  by- 
product, the  cornstalk,  what  method  are  we  to  pur- 
sue so  that  the  cornstalks  of  that  portion  of  our 
stalks  not  siloed,  may  be  conserved!  Some  of  it 
may  be  needed  in  the  form  of  crude  fodder  to  fur- 
nish the  needed  roughage  required  in  properly 
feeding  stock  when  using  silage.  But  there  is 
but  one  way  of  utilizing  that  portion  of  the  corn- 
stalks left  in  the  fields  after  their  harvests  of  com 
have  been  garnered,  and  that  is  to  take  the  roller 


190       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

immediately  after  gathering  the  corn,  roll  them 
down  flat  to  the  ground,  then  drive  out  of  the  gate 
in  the  fence  surrounding  them,  lock  the  gate  se- 
curely with  padlock,  lose  the  key  and  forget  where 
you  placed  the  hammer  or  ax  until  time  for  spring 
plowing. 

If  in  this  method  of  treatment  you  but  add  the 
proper  cover  crop  planted  or  sown  among  these 
cornstalks  at  the  proper  season  of  the  year,  then 
you  will  indeed  be  upon  the  right  road  leading  to 
soil  conservation. 

Of  course  the  covetous  and  greedy  farmer,  with- 
out capacity  for  looking  ahead  or  solving  the  prob- 
lem of  the  soil's  fertility  will  look  over  the  fence 
and  say  in  his  heart,  ^*0h,  what  a  waste  of  feed.'' 
And  in  the  spring  time,  the  farmer  set  in  the  ways 
of  farming  of  his  ancesters  will  be  impatient  to 
tear  down  the  gate  and  get  into  the  field  that  he 
may  rake  up  and  destroy  with  fire  that  precious 
wealth  of  organic  matter  and  fertility  contained 
in  those  stalks.  But  that  farmer  who  farms  with 
his  brains,  as  well  as  with  his  hands,  seeing  the 
soil's  need  and  its  requirements,  will  find  the  lost 
key,  unlock  the  gate  at  a  time  when  the  soil  is  in 
the  right  condition  for  plowing,  and  with  sufficient 
power  hitched  to  a  properly  equipped  plow,  will 
drive  into  the  field,  and  in  a  scientific  and  busi- 
nesslike manner  proceed  to  plow  under  a  sufficient 
depth  those  cornstalks  and  cover  crop,  which  have 
been  covering  the  soil  during  the  winter  months 
conserving  soil  fertility,  thus  incorporating  them 
with  the  soil  so  that  the  soil  bacteria  will  be  able 
to  attack  them  and  work  them  up  into  plant  food, 
and  into  those  other  elements  that  contribute  to 


BY-PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FARM       191 

the  soil's  fertility.  So  this  farmer  will  thus  be 
feeding  the  land  as  he  feeds  his  cattle,  and  the 
soil  will  be  as  responsive  to  its  good  treatment 
as  his  cattle  are  responsive  to  their  good  treat- 
ment, and  they  each  will  wax  fat  and  ponr  their 
wealth  into  the  hands  of  this  farmer. 

For  years  the  author  has  denounced  the  insane 
method  of  pasturing  and  burning  cornstalks.  He 
calls  these  methods  of  utilizing  this  by-product  of 
the  farm  insane  because  they  lead  to  such  a  crim- 
inal waste  of  soil  fertility,  for  which  our  soils 
are  pleading  as  shown  by  their  waning  crop 
growth  and  productiveness.  And  this  is  not 
theory  with  the  author.  He  has  for  years  prac- 
ticed the  method  of  not  pasturing  the  stalks  and 
plowing  them  under  upon  lands  adjoining  the 
same  character  of  lands  where  the  system  of  pas- 
turing and  burning  was  practiced,  and  the  results 
in  favor  of  the  author's  method  have  been  so 
marked  that  it  has  led  him  to  denounce  the  old 
method  of  pasturing  and  burning,  which  he  will 
continue  to  do  with  all  his  might  and  power. 

There  may  be  other  methods  of  conserving  this 
by-product  that  have  merit,  as  for  instance,  a  pro- 
cess has  been  discovered  by  which  paper  can  be 
made  from  cornstalks.  The  stalks  are  beaten  and 
fanned  to  remove  the  dirt  from  them.  They  are 
then  cut  into  pieces  and  steeped  in  water  and 
shredded  into  fiber  in  a  special  machine.  This 
shredded  material  is  then  boiled  in  diluted  acetic 
acid  under  air  pressure  which  results  in  a  product 
of  which  one  per  cent,  to  eighteen  per  cent,  is  an 
alkaline  solution  and  yields  large  quantities  of  ex- 
cellent paper  fiber,  leaving  a  residue  which  may  be 


192       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

utilized  as  food  for  stock  or  from  whicli  a  fair 
quantity  of  cane  sugar  can  be  procured. 

Now,  the  author  can  see  no  objection  to  the 
utilization  of  the  cornstalk  into  paper  making, 
provided  our  soils  are  supplied  with  organic  mat- 
ter from  some  source  other  than  the  cornstalks. 
Otherwise  the  cornstalk  should  never  be  destroyed 
by  fire  or  taken  from  the  farm.  We  must  not  get 
away  from  the  living  truth  that  our  soils'  sorest 
need  is  organic  matter.  Certain  death  and  decay 
is  written  upon  their  every  fiber  if  organic  matter 
in  abundance  is  not  each  year  restored  to  them. 
But  in  the  removal  of  the  cornstalk  from  the 
farm  we  are  not  wholly  without  a  substitute  from 
which  vast  quantities  of  organic  matter  can  be 
quickly  obtained.  If,  when  we  lay  by  our  corn 
fields  we  would  sow  them  to  rye  or  vetch,  we  would 
not  only  give  these  soils  the  finest  cover  crop,  but 
would  give  to  them  before  plowing  time  the  fol- 
lowing spring  more  organic  matter  than  the  corn- 
stalks would  afford.  But  do  not  forget  that  these 
cornstalks  removed  from  the  farm,  remove  a 
large  quantity  of  the  mineral  elements  they  ex- 
tract from  the  soil  in  their  growth,  which  will  be 
forever  lost  to  the  soil,  and  mineral  elements  that 
soil  must  have  to  make  it  fertile. 

The  utilization  of  cornstalks  by  shredding  is  to 
be  commended  although  this  method  does  not  fur- 
nish one-half  the  feed  that  is  furnished  by  the  silo, 
yet  it  prevents  the  waste  of  the  cornstalks,  be- 
cause those  portions  of  the  shredded  stalks  not 
eaten,  and  which  can  not  be  eaten  by  stock,  may  be 
utilized  in  bedding  for  stock,  and  is  thus  con- 
served  into    manure.    And   as    these    shredded 


BY-PEODUCTS  OF  THE  ;E^AEM       193 

stalks  soak  up  the  liquid  portions  of  the  manure, 
it  saves  the  most  valuable  part  of  the  manure 
which  is  generally  wasted.  This  method  of  hand- 
ling the  cornstalks  not  only  results  in  a  saving  of 
24  per  cent,  of  the  fodder,  when  handled  by  the  old 
methods,  but  is  also  labor  saving,  as  the  shredder 
husks  the  ears  of  corn.  Fodder  can  be  shredded 
at  an  average  cost  of  $2.25  per  acre.  The  part 
that  is  eaten  is  as  valuable  as  timothy  hay.  It 
affords  the  proper  and  necessary  roughage  for 
stock,  and  if  shredded  in  the  right  condition,  pre- 
serves fodder  in  a  better  and  more  economical 
manner  than  when  handled  in  the  old  way.  This 
system,  next  to  putting  the  corn  into  the  silo, 
should  be  commended  in  the  highest  terms,  be- 
cause like  siloing,  the  entire  cornstalk  is  conserved 
to  the  farmer's  great  profit,  especially  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  so  much  of  it  gets  back  to  the  soil  to 
supply  it  with  the  precious  organic  matter. 

It  is  universally  conceded  that  the  salvation 
of  our  worn  and  worn-out  soils  is  the  application 
to  them  of  stores  of  organic  matter;  that  the  two 
best  sources  from  which  organic  matter  can  be  ob- 
tained is  manure  and  green  manuring  crops ;  that 
the  most  valuable  is  manure;  that  sufficient  sup- 
plies of  manure  cannot  be  obtained  under  the  pres- 
ent system  of  management  of  our  farms,  because 
they  do  not  feed  sufficient  stock.  It  is  also  con- 
ceded that  the  feeding  of  stock  upon  our  farms, 
aside  from  the  manure  they  furnish,  is  a  most 
profitable  business;  that  by  feeding  stock  the 
grain,  grasses  and  other  feed  materials  grown 
upon  the  farm,  we  obtain  the  maximum  prices  for 
our  farm  products  grown  for  stock  feeding.    The 


194       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

combination,  then,  that  produces  stock  whose  in- 
crease in  fat  brings  the  farmer  a  rich  profit,  and 
the  feeding  of  which  gives  him  a  maximum  price 
for  the  farm  products  he  feeds  them,  combined 
with  a  system  of  conserving  into  a  rich  and  palat- 
able food  the  by-product  of  the  farm,  the  corn- 
stalk, ought  to  spur  the  farmer  to  such  effort  that 
he  will  not  simply  be  content  to  conserve  a  part 
of  this  by-product,  but  will  so  equip  his  farm  that 
every  part  and  portion  of  this  by-product  will  be 
conserved  into  that  profit  making  food,  that  not 
only  causes  his  cattle  to  wax  fat  and  grow  into 
riches,  but  which  also  results  in  the  production  of 
another  by-product,  the  most  valuable  to  the  farm, 
which,  if  it  can  be  produced  to  the  farm  in  large 
quantities,  would  almost  solve  the  question  of 
maintaining  soil  fertility. 

The  modern  manufacturing  plant  that  would  not 
conserve  and  utilize  each  and  every  portion  of  a 
valuable  by-product,  would  be  looked  upon  as  be- 
ing a  plant  twenty  years  behind  the  times.  And 
what  is  the  farm  but  a  modern  manufacturing 
plant  that  manufactures  human  and  animal  food 
stuffs  ?  And  why  should  it  not  conserve  and  util- 
ize every  portion  of  its  by-products  as  well  as  the 
most  modern  conducted  business  establishment? 

In  the  hauling  of  corn  to  market  the  farmer  of 
course  receives  pay  for  corn  cobs,  receiving  the 
same  price  per  pound  for  them  as  he  does  for  his 
corn.  But  it  occurs  to  the  author  that  here  is  a 
by-product  that  can  be  utilized  in  another  and  to 
a  greater  profit  for  the  farmer.  Every  farmer  in 
this  day  is  or  should  be  equipped  with  a  gasoline 
engine.    Corn  shellers  are  cheap  and  can  be  oper- 


BY-PEODUCTS  OF  THE  FARM       195 

ated  with  the  average  gasoline  engine.  Shelled 
corn  well  cleaned  should  command  a  price  equal 
to  the  corn  sold  on  the  cob,  and  would  in  this 
manner  afford  the  farmer  the  same  profit  and 
leave  him  the  cobs,  costing  the  labor  and  expense 
of  shelling  which  would  not  be  large.  Most  all 
farms  have  their  feed  mills,  or  they  can  be  pur- 
chased at  a  cheap  price,  which  too  are  operated  by 
gasoline  power.  These  mills  will  grind  up  cobs 
into  a  fine  matter  that  can  be  utilized  for  feed, 
bedding  or  manure,  or,  as  has  recently  been  dis- 
covered, can  be  with  little  trouble  and  skill  mixed 
with  cement  and  molded  into  the  best  of  lumber. 
But  if  the  cobs  were  ground  and  returned  to  the 
soil,  the  farmer  would  receive  five  times  the  value 
by  such  utilization  than  he  receives  from  the  pur- 
chase and  use  of  commercial  fertilizers,  and  he 
would  save  to  his  soils  the  valuable  soil  minerals 
contained  in  them.  No  manufacturing  plants 
would  despise  such  a  ultilization  of  its  by-pro- 
ducts.   It  would  ever  be  on  the  alert  to  find  them. 

Much  care  should  be  exercised  in  the  utilization 
of  straw  upon  the  farm,  and  it  should  never  be 
sold  from  any  farm  unless  animal  or  green  manur- 
ing crops  are  substituted  in  its  place.  Its  main 
uses  are  for  bedding  and  roughage  for  stock,  and 
is  thus  converted,  not  only  into  animal  profit  mak- 
ing fat,  but  into  another  by-product,  manure. 
Utilized  thus,  greater  profit  is  secured  than  in  its 
sale. 

The  successful  orchardman  is  ever  on  the  alert 
to  work  up  into  profit  his  by-products  of  unsalable 
fruit.     They  are  used  into  cider,  vinegar,  feed,  etc. 

China,  Germany,  and  many  other  old  countries 


196       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

have  been  driven  by  necessity  to  utilize  every  by- 
product of  the  soil  or  farm.  They  construct  their 
compost  heaps  into  which  are  thrown  every  weed, 
straw,  vine,  top  of  vegetable,  shuck  or  manure. 
Not  a  single  bit  of  organic  matter,  no  matter  what 
its  kind  or  character,  is  wasted,  but  is  carefully 
garnered  and  thrown  into  the  compost  heap  to  be 
converted  into  manure  or  fertilizing  matter  with 
which  to  compensate  the  soil  for  its  production  of 
crops. 

The  majority  of  farmers  in  America  have  not  as 
yet  been  driven  to  that  necessity,  but  the  author 
ventures  the  prophecy  that  unless  our  soil  wasting 
be  stayed,  that  very  thing,  and  at  no  distant 
day,  will  become  an  important  part  of  our  farm 
economy. 

The  successful  Eoman  farmer  even  plowed  un- 
der his  stubble  as  soon  as  the  crops  were  removed 
that  it  might  not  dry  out  and  take  the  moisture 
from  the  soil,  and  lose  much  of  its  fertilizing 
value.  It  is  the  practice  of  the  American  farmer 
to  let  the  stubble  become  dry  and  then  burn  it. 

Many  of  us  have  not  even  begun  the  study  of  the 
best  methods  of  utilizing  or  conserving  the 
by-products  of  the  farm,  and  too  few  of  us  are 
putting  them  into  practice,  even  when  we  have 
learned  them. 

The  successful  farmer  of  the  future  is  the  one 
who  will  carefully  study  out  and  put  into  execu- 
tion methods  by  which  every  by-product  of  the 
farm  will  be  consumed  and  utilized  to  the  best  ad- 
vantage. 

When  this  has  become  the  common  practice  upon 


BY-PEODUCTS  OF  THE  FARM       197 

every  portion  of  our  soil,  then  our  worn  and 
worn-out  lands  will  have  become  a  memory  and 
the  profits  of  the  business  of  farming  will  be  worth 
while. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

CAEE   OF   FAEM   MACHINERY 

WE  are  living  in  the  most  advanced  age  of 
machinery.  Never  before  in  the  history 
of  the  world  has  machinery  been  applied  to  the 
doing  of  man's  work  as  now.  Man  has  made  per- 
fected machines  that  do  his  work  with  greater 
skill  than  ever  he  possessed.  This  perfected 
machinery  has  permeated  every  industry,  and 
now  becomes  necessary  to  the  perfection  of  effi- 
ciency so  that  products  may  be  produced  at  lowest 
possible  cost. 

Perfected  machinery  for  all  branches  of  the 
business  of  farming  has  been  developed  to  that 
stage  that  it  has  solved  much  of  the  labor  problems 
of  the  business,  and  makes  farm  labor  a  lighter 
burden  than  it  has  ever  been  in  the  history  of  the 
business.  The  day  of  brawn  upon  the  farm  has 
been  succeeded  by  the  day  of  lessened  labor  and 
shorter  hours  of  labor.  Perfected  farm  machin- 
ery has  been  the  magic  wand  that  has  touched  the 
old  farm  labor  conditions,  and  brought  forth  the 
period  of  greater  efficiency  accomplished  by  light- 
ened labor  under  more  pleasant  and  agreeable 
conditions,  yet  we  must  still  take  into  considera- 
tion depreciation  of  farm  machinery  in  figuring 
the  cost  of  producing  our  farm  products. 

The  manufacturing  plant  that  does  not  figure 

198 


O  W 


CAEE  OF  FARM  MACHINERY        199 

depreciation  in  all  its  phases  as  a  part  of  the  cost 
of  its  finished  products  will  learn  to  its  distress 
that  it  is  playing  a  losing  game.  It  is  therefore 
a  business  proposition  to  reduce  depreciation  to  a 
minimum.  This  can  only  be  done  with  machinery 
by  taking  the  proper  care  of  it. 

It  is  often  found  necessary  to  replace  machinery 
with  the  new  and  improved  machinery  that  so  in- 
creases efficiency  that  it  makes  it  no  longer  eco- 
nomical to  use  the  old.  But  the  machinery  that 
has  not  been  displaced  with  the  new  and  improved 
machinery,  as  well  as  the  new,  should  be  preserved 
and  cared  for  in  the  most  approved  manner. 

In  every  business  we  find  a  great  neglect  in  the 
caring  for  machinery,  but  it  seems  to  the  author 
that  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  business  of 
farming  show  greater  neglect  of  their  machinery 
than  in  any  other  business.  The  cause  of  this 
certainly  cannot  be  attributed  to  downright  lazi- 
ness. There  must  be  another  reason  for  it.  We 
are  inclined  to  believe  it  is  due  to  thoughtlessness 
caused  by  want  of  knowledge  of  the  importance  of 
proper  caring  for  machinery,  or  for  lack  of  capital 
to  provide  ways  and  means  for  caring  for  machin- 
ery. We  firmly  believe  that  if  every  one  engaged 
in  the  business  of  farming  had  the  necessary 
capital  to  construct  the  proper  sheds  or  buildings 
in  which  to  care  for  his  farm  machinery,  we 
would  not  now  see  conditions  that  obtain  upon 
most  all  our  farms  in  respect  to  the  care  of  ma- 
chinery. 

No  farm  is  really  and  truly  equipped  for  busi- 
ness unless  it  not  only  has  sufficient  sheds  and 
buildings  in  which  to  house  its  machinery,  but  also 


200       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

has  its  workshop  with  heating  facilities  so  that  in 
the  winter  season  repairs  can  be  made  to  ma- 
chinery. 

But  few  of  ns  properly  care  for  our  plows  and 
cultivators.  When  through  with  them  for  the  day 
or  season,  instead  of  applying  to  the  moldboard 
points  and  shovels,  oil  or  grease  in  the  form  of 
paste,  we  allow  them  to  be  exposed  to  weather 
conditions  which  bring  on  the  rust  that  prevents 
scouring,  and  causes  the  irritating  annoyances 
and  improper  plowing  or  cultivation.  And  often 
when  we  put  away  our  machinery  in  our  ample 
sheds  we  forget  that  dampness  and  rust  will  per- 
meate into  those  sheds  the  same  as  though  ex- 
posed to  weather  conditions,  and  so  forget  the 
application  of  grease  and  paint  that  will  protect 
and  preserve  from  these  troubles. 

There  is  joy  and  pleasure  in  working  with  the 
good  piece  of  farm  machinery  in  our  fields  if  it 
be  in  perfect  condition  in  all  its  parts,  for  in  this 
condition  it  does  its  work  well.  Much  of  the  neg- 
lect to  care  for  farm  machines  is  occasioned  by  the 
same  force  that  causes  neglect  of  farm  fences, 
buildings,  farm  surroundings  generally,  neglect  of 
soil,  etc.  It  is  the  spirit  of  neglect  that  fastens 
itself  upon  the  lives  of  men  in  every  branch  of 
trade  or  business.  This  spirit  is  chiefly  brought 
about  by  discouragements,  discontent  with  our  lot, 
dreaming  for  things  beyond  our  stations,  lack  of 
ability,  and  often  to  laziness. 

We  have  already  shown  the  force  of  discourage- 
ment upon  the  lives  and  habits  of  men.  If  we 
could  but  get  in  tune  with  our  business  and  be 
given  the  vision  of  its  wonderful  possibilities, 


CAEE  OF  FAEM  MAGHINEEY       201 

every  farm  neglect  would  be  soon  eliminated. 
Eead  again  our  chapter  on  the  Discouragements 
and  Vicissitudes  of  the  Business  of  Farming,  and 
especially  our  chapter  upon  the  Profits  of  the 
Business  of  Farming,  and  see  if  you  cannot  get 
the  spirit  and  vision  of  that  work  that  gets  you 
interested  in  every  detail  of  your  business,  for  if 
you  can  catch  the  true  spirit  of  work  and  make  it 
a  part  of  your  being,  then  you  will  cheerfully  go 
forth  and  strive  to  eliminate  from  your  business 
the  spirit  of  neglect  that  is  swallowing  up  your 
profits  in  waste,  and  which  also  is  spreading  the 
spirit  of  discontent  of  farm  life  among  your  fam- 
ilies. 

The  most  successful  men  in  the  business  world 
have  been  the  men  who  were  ever  alert  and  so 
interested  in  their  business  that  they  attended 
carefully  to  its  every  detail,  and  in  the  doing  of 
this  they  found  that  waste  was  the  most  serious 
foe  to  their  business,  and  that  its  elimination 
meant  increased  profits,  and  when  they  saw  this 
they  did  not  procrastinate  but  acted. 

We  must  eliminate  the  waste  of  neglect  from 
our  farms,  not  only  for  profit,  but  for  the  uplift 
of  our  families,  and  to  increase  our  love  for  our 
business.  If  it  requires  capital  to  do  it,  let  us 
put  forth  every  effort  to  secure  it  for  the  returns 
will  soon  pay  the  borrowed  capital.  If  energy 
and  work  only  is  the  requisite  needed,  then  let  us 
quit  our  dreaming  and  get  busy.  Get  in  the  game 
of  your  business  and  play  it  like  the  true  sport  or 
quit  the  business.  Too  many  of  us  are  simply 
drifting,  and  the  drifting  man  always  neglects  his 
business  and  fails  to  safeguard  it  by  the  elimina- 


202       THE  BUSINESS  OP  FARMING 

tion  of  waste.  If  by  the  proper  care  of  farm  ma- 
cliinery  we  can  double  its  period  of  activity,  we 
have  added  much  to  our  profits.  Under  the  con- 
ditions that  now  obtain  upon  the  average  farm 
with  reference  to  the  care  of  farm  machinery  its 
life  is  reduced  nearly  one-half  for  want  of  proper 
care.  It  is  one  of  the  great  wastes  of  the  business 
that  eats  heavily  into  the  profits,  and  yet  is  a 
waste  that  can  so  easily  be  eliminated.  It  re- 
quires no  set  rules  to  eliminate  this  waste  from 
the  farm.  Just  simply  get  busy  and  do  it  like 
John  Sherman  told  how  to  resume  specie  pay- 
ments, *  *  Just  resume. ' ' 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  IMPOKTANCE  OF  LIVE  STOCK  IN  THE  BUSINESS 
OF   FARMING 

WE  hear  much  about  feeding  more  stock  on 
the  farm.  That  there  is  much  profit  in 
so  doing  is  an  established  fact.  More  money  is 
secured  for  the  grain  and  forage  fed  than  if  it 
was  hauled  to  market,  and  the  by-product,  manure, 
produced  by  this  method  is  valuable,  as  it  enables 
the  farmer  to  maintain  and  increase  the  fertility 
of  much  of  his  farm.  But  those  who  so  enthu- 
siastically advocate  this  method  of  farm  pro- 
cedure, forget  the  fact  that  to  do  this  on  most 
any  farm,  requires  considerable  capital,  which 
many  farmers,  especially  renters,  cannot  secure. 

Again,  not  every  farm  is  adapted  to  this  pur- 
pose, for  to  successfully  follow  the  procedure,  the 
farm  must  have  an  abundance  of  water  furnished 
either  by  springs,  running  streams,  or  pumped 
from  wells.  To  pump  water  from  wells  means  a 
considerable  expense.  There  must  also  be  plenty 
of  shade,  pasture  or  forage  crops  in  abundance 
every  month  of  the  spring,  summer,  and  fall  sea- 
sons, and  plenty  of  feed  and  shelter  in  the  winter 
season.  And  the  farmer  who  follows  this  method 
must  also  have  such  a  love  for  stock  that  he  will 
give  it  the  best  care.  Which  means  that  he  must 
be  possessed  of  patience,  a  love  for  details  and  a 

203 


204       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

disposition  to  give  almost  his  wliole  time  to  their 
attention  and  care,  for  they  cannot  be  kept  in 
health  and  brought  to  a  good  marketable  stage 
without  it.  He  must  also  be  possessed  of  that 
kindly  disposition  which  enables  one  to  treat  stock 
with  kindness  and  gentleness,  for  animals  resent 
harsh  treatment  as  much  as  man.  When  we  con- 
sider the  fact  that  upon  the  farms  of  the  United 
States  there  are  twenty-five  millions  of  horses  and 
mules,  the  cost  of  feeding  which,  annually,  is  about 
two  billions  of  dollars,  and  that  it  takes  one-third 
of  the  hay  and  corn  grown  on  the  average  farm 
to  feed  the  horses  or  mules  required  to  cultivate 
and  care  for  the  farm,  it  can  be  seen  at  a  glance 
that  to  keep  much  of  the  stock  upon  the  farm  in 
addition  to  horses  and  mules  necessary  to  run  it, 
means  that  the  farm  must  grow  more  grain  and 
forage  than  is  now  produced  upon  the  average 
farm. 

Few  farms  have  a  large  acreage  of  blue  grass 
pasture,  and  even  if  they  had,  it  could  not  be  de- 
pended upon  in  the  dry  seasons. 

It  is  probably  designed  by  Nature  that  we  should 
not  all  be  stock  farmers,  for  if  we  were,  from 
whence  would  come  the  grain  to  feed  the  world, 
and  the  hay  and  other  feed  stuffs  which  feed  the 
animals  of  those  who  do  not  farm? 

Somebody  must  be  grain  farmers,  that  is, 
farmers  who  grow  and  sell  all  the  products  of 
the  farm,  only  reserving  enough  to  feed  the  stock 
required  to  carry  on  their  farm  operations  and  to 
furnish  food  for  themselves.  As  nearly  three- 
fourths  of  the  farmers  of  the  United  States  are 
grain  farmers,  and  probably  always  will  be,  for 


IMPOETANCE  OF  LIVE  STOCK   205 

grain  fanning  has  generally  been  profitable  and 
will  be  if  farm  fertility  is  kept  up,  and  as  many 
do  not  have  and  cannot  secure  the  capital  requi- 
site, and  do  not  have  the  capacity  for  raising  and 
caring  for  stock,  the  business  of  grain  farming 
will  continue  to  occupy  the  attention  of  the  vast 
majority  of  our  farmers. 

Most  any  farm  can  be  fitted  and  so  managed 
that  much  stock  can  be  fed  to  a  profit,  even  though 
it  have  none  of  the  natural  advantages  for  so 
doing. 

First,  we  must  get  away  from  the  idea  that  a 
large  acreage  of  pasture  lands  is  necessary.  The 
most  successful  stock  feeders  of  our  own  and 
foreign  countries  get  best  results  from  lot  feed- 
ing, and  this  method  does  not  require  large  pas- 
ture acreage.  The  essential  thing  is  shelter  from 
inclement  weather  and  excessive  sunlight,  and  it 
does  not  always  mean  expensive  buildings  to  se- 
cure these  protections.  A  simple  shed  of  poles, 
rails,  and  straw,  will  make  shelters  that  protect 
from  cold,  sleet,  rain,  or  fierce  summer  heat, 
and  make  comfortable  places  for  stock  even  in 
the  winter  seasons.  If  commodious,  sanitary 
equipped  buildings  can  be  erected,  so  much  the 
better,  but  the  worst  failures  in  stock  raising  the 
author  has  ever  seen  were  those  of  farmers  who 
had  the  most  expensive  and  best  equipped  building 
facilities  for  the  caring  of  stock.  Simply  con- 
structed sheds  of  poles,  rails  and  straw,  erected 
where  drainage  is  perfect,  will  give  as  good  re- 
sults in  the  care  of  stock  as  the  most  expensive 
and  elaborate  stock  barns,  and  like  every  other 
business  the  success  of  producing  live  stock  de- 


206       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

pends  upon  the  man  behind  the  business.  The 
main  things  are  the  right  breeds  of  stock,  the  feed, 
the  feeding,  the  sanitation  and  the  care  bestowed, 
and  the  production  of  these  essentials  depends 
upon  the  man. 

The  most  important  thing  is  the  production  of 
an  abundance  of  the  right  kind  of  food.  The  food 
generally  relied  upon  on  the  average  farm  is  com, 
timothy  and  clover  hay,  and  a  forage  of  blue  grass 
and  clover.  To  depend  upon  these  in  this  day  and 
generation  would  mean  that  upon  the  average 
farm  there  would  be  little  stock  produced  at  a 
profit,  so  we  must  get  away  from  this  idea  of 
producing  feeds  for  stock. 

The  trouble  with  most  farmers  is  that  they  are 
impregnated  with  the  idea  that  blue  grass,  tim- 
othy, clover  and  matured  corn  are  the  only  feeds. 
The  folly  of  depending  upon  these  feeds  for  ex- 
tensive stock  raising  upon  the  average  farm  is 
apparent  if  we  but  lay  aside  our  prejudices  and 
study  carefully  the  situation. 

Blue  grass  is  fine  for  the  season  it  lasts,  but 
it  is  susceptible  to  drouth,  does  not  grow  in  abun- 
dance except  upon  our  best  cultivated  lands.  Oc- 
casionally we  find  waste  woodland  or  lands  not 
susceptible  of  cultivation  that  produce  fairly  good 
pasture  of  blue  grass,  but  such  conditions  are 
rarely  found.  If  lands  are  at  all  susceptible  of 
cultivation,  other  forage  crops  can  be  grown  upon 
them  more  abundantly  and  at  greater  profit. 

Timothy  produces  but  one  crop  a  season,  and 
generally  not  in  abundance  unless  the  land  upon 
which  it  is  grown  is  extra  fertile.  On  average 
lands  its  output  is  less  than  a  ton  to  the  acre, 


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IMPORTANCE  OF  LIVE  STOCK   207 

which,  for  its  feeding  value,  is  a  most  unprofitable 
crop,  and  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  is  a 
crop  that  has  done  and  is  doing  more  to  produce 
worn  and  worn-out  lands  than  any  crop  ever  grown 
upon  the  farm.  Clover  ranks  well,  but  there  are 
better  and  more  profitable  forage  crops.  A  fine 
forage  crop  for  cattle,  sheep,  or  horses  is  hunga- 
rian.  It  produces  its  large  crops  of  high  feeding 
qualities  in  eight  weeks,  and  can  be  sown  upon 
wheat  lands  after  wheat  harvest,  and  after  its 
harvest  the  soil  can  be  sown  to  rye  or  other  green 
manuring  and  cover  crops,  which  can  be  pastured 
in  the  fall  or  left  to  cover  the  ground  and  to  be 
plowed  under  in  the  spring,  thus  procuring  sev- 
eral crops  the  same  season  and  yet  providing  for 
an  excellent  method  of  farm  procedure  by  which 
soil  fertility  can  be  maintained. 

Sorghum  is  another  most  valuable  forage  crop 
of  rich  feeding  value  which  can  be  quickly  grown, 
producing  tons  of  forage  to  the  acre,  and  will  so 
grow  on  most  any  soil,  and  will  as  soon  as  cut 
immediately  grow  a  second  crop  which  can  be 
used  for  forage,  or,  a  better  plan  is  to  use  it  as 
a  green  manuring  crop  for  plowing  under,  for 
sorghum  is  valuable  for  this  purpose. 

Kafir,  a  forage  plant  of  the  species  of  sorghum, 
and  like  unto  corn,  is  most  valuable  as  it  flourishes 
at  its  best  in  the  semi-arid  or  dry  regions.  Na- 
ture has  endowed  this  plant  with  a  virtue  worth 
millions  to  the  business  of  farming.  That  virtue 
is  the  plant's  ability  to  cease  growth  and  lie  dor- 
mant without  injury  during  periods  of  drouth 
and  to  resume  its  growth  when  rains  come  to  re- 
fresh it.    It  also  has  the  power  to  produce  the 


208       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

second  and  even  third  crop.  Its  feeding  power 
while  not  as  high  as  that  of  corn,  is  most  valuable, 
and  as  feed  it  is  suitable  for  all  kinds  of  stock, 
and  in  some  parts  of  the  world  is  nsed  for  human 
food. 

Cow  peas,  friend  of  worn-out  soils,  which  takes 
so  kindly  to  its  soil  feeding  powers  that  it  will 
grow  it  in  abundance,  is  a  forage  plant  of  such 
high  feeding  powers,  and  produces  in  such  quan- 
tity, that  it  should  be  grown  upon  every  farm  that 
feeds  stock  in  any  quantity,  even  by  the  grain 
farmer  for  the  stock  that  he  needs  in  his  farm 
operations. 

There  are  other  forage  plants  worthy  of  trial 
which  have  proved  their  value  for  feeding  stock, 
like  rape  for  hogs,  and  the  millets  and  vetches  for 
cattle. 

But  in  making  a  selection  of  forage  plants  the 
farmer  must,  to  be  successful,  consider  those 
plants  which  give  the  greatest  feeding  value  and 
the  plants  that  will  produce  the  largest  quantity 
of  forage  at  the  least  expense,  both  for  growing 
and  harvesting. 

Corn  is  a  staple  and  perhaps  a  necessity  in 
stock  raising  and  always  will  be,  although  it  can 
not  be  depended  upon  alone,  but  it  is  one  of  the 
most  valuable  of  feeds  for  stock  if  siloed. 

There  is  another  forage  plant  whose  value  has 
not  yet  been  fully  appreciated  and  realized  by  the 
stock  raisers  of  our  country,  and  that  is  alfalfa, 
*^the  everlasting  and  best  fodder,"  transformer 
of  Kansas  farmers  into  Nabobs,  the  mint  that 
coins  pork  into  dollars,  possessing  the  alchemic 
art  of  transmuting  worn-out  soil  into  **pay  dirt,'' 


IMPOETANCE  OF  LIVE  STOCK      209 

and  one  of  tlie  two  plants  that  is  worth  more  to 
our  agricultural  economy  than  any  grain,  grass  or 
forage  plant  grown  upon  the  American  farm. 
Valuable  because  it  can  be  made  to  grow  luxuri- 
antly upon  nine-tenths  of  our  soils,  producing  in 
almost  any  portion  of  our  country  three  bumper 
crops  of  hay,  and  in  many  places  four  or  five  crops 
each  season,  and  for  a  long  period  of  years,  its 
feeding  value  equal,  pound  for  pound,  to  bran 
(the  richest  in  food  value  of  any  stock  food 
known),  and  not  equaled  by  any  forage  plant 
known  to  agriculture.  Besides  it  is  a  plant  that 
has  concealed  in  its  juices  the  health  giving  elixir 
for  the  animal  that  eats  it. 

Alfalfa  pastured  by,  or  fed  as  hay  to  hogs,  to- 
gether with  a  ration  of  corn,  constitutes  the  cheap- 
est and  most  perfectly  balanced  ration,  and  the 
ideal  winter  ration  for  brood  sows. 

It  possesses  another  characteristic  that  seems 
to  have  been  overlooked  by  alfalfa  writers,  and 
that  is  the  easy  and  cheap  manner  in  which  it  can 
be  prepared  and  made  ready  for  feeding.  No 
necessity  to  resort  to  the  expense  and  labor  of 
putting  it  in  silos,  or  chopping  it  up  and  mixing 
with  other  feeds.  If  the  alfalfa  field  is  well  es- 
tablished turn  the  stock  into  it  in  the  summer 
time  and  pasture  it  judiciously,  which  means  not 
to  over  pasture,  and  clip  with  mower  the  same  as 
if  cut  for  hay.  The  hay  can  be  at  any  season  of 
the  year  thrown  into  the  manger  and  feeding  racks 
to  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  hogs,  and  it  will  be  eaten 
with  relish,  and  to  the  great  profit  of  the  farmer. 

Within  the  lifetime  of  the  author,  and  in  the 
region  where  he  has  resided,  there  sprang  up  in 


210       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

great  profusion  along  the  roadsides  and  upon  the 
waste  unproductive  soils,  a  plant  immediately  de- 
nounced by  the  people  generally  as  a  most  serious 
weed  pest.  There  was  mystery  in  its  origin,  for 
no  one  knew  from  whence  it  came.  In  alarm  the 
farmer  said  it  would  invade  and  devastate  his 
cultivated  fields,  yet  it  never  did  take  hold  upon 
the  rich  or  fairly  rich  cultivated  or  uncultivated 
lands,  but  upon  the  poorest,  stoniest,  and  driest 
waste  places,  road  sides  and  commons,  it  flourished 
and  grew  to  great  size,  no  matter  what  the  char- 
acter of  the  growing  season  might  be. 

This  seeming  weed  pest  was  but  one  of  the  pow- 
erful soil  restoring  working  forces  that  Nature 
so  kindly  sets  before  the  owners  of  worn  and 
worn-out  soil  for  restoring  soil  fertility.  It  was 
one  of  her  mute  offers  of  help  to  our  burdened 
soils,  and  though  soil  owners  spumed  the  prof- 
fered help.  Nature  was  persistent.  When  the 
soil  owner  would  with  fury  strike  down  the  seem- 
ing pest  with  mower  and  scythe.  Nature  made  it 
grow  more  luxuriantly  than  ever  before,  and  fur- 
ther emphasized  one  of  its  valuable  characteristics. 
The  persistence  of  Nature  in  making  the  plant 
flourish  under  the  sternest  opposition  and  environ- 
ment, no  doubt  led  some  one  out  in  thought  and 
investigation,  for  somebody  saw  the  virtues  and 
uses  of  the  plant,  and  it  was  discovered  that  Na- 
ture was  bringing  to  the  very  feet  of  the  farmer, 
a  plant  whose  soil  restoring  and  fertility  main- 
taining powers  and  feeding  value  is  not  equaled 
by  any  plant  grown,  or  human  agency  devised  by 
man.  Thus  the  despised  and  rejected  sweet  clover 
plant  is  not  only  about  to  become  a  comer  stone 


C/5 


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IMPOETANCE  OF  LIVE  STOCK      211 

of  a  permanent  agriculture  in  tMs  land  of  ours, 
but  a  most  valuable  forage  plant.  Valuable  as  a 
forage  plant  because  it  will  make  an  enormous 
growth  and  harvest  upon  our  poorest  lands,  thus 
making  stock  farming  profitable  where  before  it 
was  a  positive  failure,  because  not  enough  feed 
could  be  produced  to  profitably  feed  stock. 

To  those  who  are  ever  proclaiming  that  to  build 
up  our  worn  and  worn-out  soils,  or  to  maintain 
soil  fertility,  the  farmers  of  our  country  must  be- 
come live  stock  farmers  and  grow  and  produce 
more  live  stock  upon  the  farm,  the  author  would 
remind,  that  the  manure  from  the  stock  raised 
upon  the  farms  of  the  United  States  would  not 
cover  one-tenth  of  our  farm  lands.  What  is  to 
become  of  the  other  nine-tenths  1  If  all  the  farms 
would  go  into  the  live  stock  business  to  any  great 
extent,  from  whence  would  they  get  their  supplies 
of  stock  with  which  to  commence  business!  And 
we  have  shown  that  manure  is  not  needed  to  build 
up  our  soils  or  to  maintain  their  fertility. 

Again  we  should  remember  as  one  has  well  said, 
*^We  do  not  live  by  meat  alone.''  Bread  is  the 
basis  of  the  food  of  the  world,  and  it  takes  the 
grains  to  make  bread,  and  the  remaining  items 
of  diet  almost  as  important  as  meat  are  the  vege- 
tables and  the  fruit,  all  produced  upon  the  farms. 

Our  dispositions  and  tastes  are  such  that  not  all 
of  us  would  succeed  as  producers  of  meat,  grain, 
vegetables,  and  fruit  collectively.  Some  of  us  de- 
light in  live  stock  raising,  and  so  make  a  success 
of  this  business.  Some  of  us  are  more  successful 
in  the  other  single  lines  of  the  business  of  farm- 
ing, and  so  writers  and  speakers  in  considering 


212       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FABMING 

these  things  should  not  forget  the  true  conditions 
that  obtain,  and  always  will  obtain  in  the  agricul- 
tural world,  and,  therefore,  not  advocate  the  doing 
of  impossible  things. 

We  find  conditions  obtaining  upon  the  farm  that 
can  not  be  changed,  but  they  can  be  improved  to 
the  advantage  of  the  great  business  of  farming, 
and  therefore  to  the  advantage  of  the  people  in 
general.  For  instance,  if  conditions  are  such  that 
live  stock  farming  can  not  be  engaged  in  by  every 
farmer,  then  the  condition  that  necessarily  follows 
the  lot  of  those  who  engage  in  grain  farming,  who 
do  not  secure  enough  manure  to  keep  up  and  main- 
tain the  fertility  of  the  farm,  can  be  so  changed 
that  they  can  follow  a  system  of  green  manuring 
by  which  bumper  crops  can  be  grown,  and  farm 
fertility  can  not  only  be  increased  but  maintained. 

The  alarm  has  been  sounded  that  a  serious 
shortage  of  the  meat  supply  threatens  our  nation. 
The  breaking  up  of  the  western  ranges  has  had 
much  to  do  with  this  shortage,  and  if  it  be  true  as 
some  claim,  that  *^rich  red  juicy  beef"  is  neces- 
sary to  put  the  virile  force  into  the  American 
people,  then  this  apparent  meat  shortage  indeed 
becomes  a  serious  menace  to  our  people,  and  re- 
quires that  something  be  done  to  remedy  the  con- 
dition of  meat  shortage. 

Many  and  varied  are  the  remedies  suggested. 
Among  them  being  that  **  every  farmer  should 
raise  at  least  two  beef  steers  a  year  to  offset  the 
decreased  production  of  the  ranges."  **The  re- 
maining ranges  should  be  cut  up  into  farms." 
**  Development  of  the  hills  of  New  England,  with 
their  bountiful  springs  and  prevailing  shade." 


IMPOETANCE  OF  LIVE  STOCK      213 

'*  Substitution  of  corn  for  cotton  in  the  southern 
states,  and  the  consequent  development  of  cattle 
and  hog  production. ' ' 

Of  course  it  is  up  to  the  farmer  to  produce  more 
meat,  but  he  will  never  do  it  unless  he  can  be 
shown  that  there  is  money  in  the  proposition. 
The  way  the  average  farm  has  been  managed  as 
to  the  production  of  feeds  has  led  away  from, 
rather  than  to,  stock  upon  our  farms,  for  the  pro- 
duction of  crops  upon  these  farms  has  been  such 
that  it  was  necessary  that  the  average  farmer 
should  sell  all  his  grain  and  feed  stuff  grown,  other 
than  what  was  necessary  to  feed  his  stock  neces- 
sary to  conduct  farm  operations,  in  order  that  he 
might  live.  The  average  farmer  did  not  have  a 
large  acreage  of  native  grasses,  and  if  he  did,  they 
would  not  be  available  at  all  seasons  on  account 
of  drouth,  and  those  grown,  like  alfalfa,  that  pro- 
duced their  several  crops  each  season,  or  those 
other  grasses  that  produced  enormous  crops,  were 
not  grown.  Dependence  was  put  upon  timothy 
and  clover,  which  never,  except  under  the  most 
favorable  conditions  of  weather  and  soil  fertility, 
produced  in  abundance.  The  silo  was  unknown 
and  so  the  average  farm  as  a  meat  producer  has 
been  of  little  consequence,  and  to  make  it  a  pro- 
ducer now,  an  entire  change  in  the  methods  of 
farming  must  be  put  into  effect  upon  these  farms. 

The  question  of  a  better  meat  supply  will  never 
be  solved  upon  the  average  farm  so  long  as  the 
average  farm  will  not  grow  more  than  enough 
clover,  timothy,  or  grass  to  support  one  steer  to 
the  acre.  But  it  will  be  solved  when  the  owner 
of  our  average  farms  begins  to  grow  such  forage 


214       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAKMING 

plants  as  alfalfa,  sweet  clover,  sorghum,  soy  beans, 
cow  peas,  kafir,  and  erect  the  silo  for  the  better 
utilization  of  corn  and  cornstalks,  a  by-product 
heretofore  wasted  and  destroyed.  For  when  these 
methods  of  farm  procedure  obtain  upon  our 
farms,  then  the  production  of  live  stock  becomes 
a  most  profitable  business,  and  farmers  will  en- 
gage in  it  because  there  is  money  in  the  business 
of  stock  raising  under  such  conditions.  When 
farm  prejudices  are  broken  down  and  the  farmer 
can  be  made  to  see  that  by  a  certain  line  of  pro- 
cedure money  can  be  made  out  of  stock  raising, 
then  he  will  engage  in  it  to  the  extent  of  his  capital, 
and  here  we  must  realize  that  while  it  is  an  estab- 
lished fact  that  the  successful  farming  operations 
have  for  their  corner-stone  a  large  number  of  ani- 
mals used  for  human  food,  yet  to  do  even  this  re- 
quires capital  to  buy  or  raise  the  animals,  to  secure 
and  maintain  proper  equipment  for  their  care,  and 
the  securing  of  their  feed  in  the  most  economical 
manner.  And  to  find  so  large  a  number  of  farms 
without  their  proper  quota  of  live  stock,  is  be- 
cause their  owners  lack  sufficient  capital  and  are 
not  in  position  to  secure  the  same,  and  their  farms 
are  not  so  farmed  that  feed  for  stock  is  produced 
in  sufficient  amount  to  feed  any  quantity  of  stock, 
for  we  must  remember  that  it  takes  twelve  pounds 
of  feed  to  produce  a  pound  of  beef,  and  four 
pou-nds  of  feed  to  produce  one  pound  of  pork. 

Statistics  show  that  in  the  mercantile  world  a 
large,  if  not  the  la»rgest  number,  of  failures  are  the 
result  of  insufficient  capital,  and  the  author  be- 
lieves that  if  statis.tics  could  be  gathered  as  to  the 
causes  of  failures  in  farm  operations,  it  would 


IMPOETANCE  OF  LIVE  STOCK      215 

prove  that  lack  of  capital  had  the  greatest  number 
to  its  credit. 

If,  then,  the  average  farmer  has  ''been  shown," 
and  he  can  secure  the  capital  to  buy  stock,  and 
will  change  his  methods  of  producing  feeds,  he  will 
become  an  important  factor  in  relieving  the  meat 
shortage  that  threatens  our  country. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

BBili  COST   OF   OPERATION,   SHIPPING  AND   MAKKET- 
INQ   PRODUCTS 

THE  market  values  of  farm  products  are,  un- 
fortunately for  the  farmer,  fixed  in  the  mar- 
kets of  the  world.  The  farmer  has  little,  if  any- 
thing, to  say  about  what  price  his  farm  products 
shall  bring.  Generally  the  manufacturer  can,  and 
does,  fix  the  market  price  of  his  manufactured 
goods. 

The  market  values  of  farm  products  are  regu- 
lated generally  by  supply  and  demand.  When 
there  is  a  plethora  of  farm  products,  or  any  one 
of  them,  no  amount  of  organization  or  cooperation 
among  farmers  will  boost  prices.  It  may  help 
increase  the  price  for  select  products,  or  correct 
certain  market  conditions,  and  in  a  limited  way 
increase  consumption,  but  a  bountiful  supply  of 
farm  products  always  has  and  always  will  bear 
down  and  reduce  prices. 

Then,  if  the  farmer  is  unable  to  fix  the  price  of 
his  farm  products,  he  must,  to  make  a  profit,  see 
that  his  operating  expenses  are  reduced  to  the 
minimum. 

The  manufacturer,  in  figuring  cost  of  operation, 
figures  not  only  cost  of  raw  material  and  labor  in 
working  up  same,  but  he  also  takes  into  considera- 
tion the  items  of  interes.t,  taxes,  water  rents,  lights, 

216 


EEAL  COST  OF  OPEKATION         217 

depreciation,  etc.  So  the  farmer  should,  if  he 
would  figure  the  true  cost  of  operation.  True  this 
will  not  avail  him  much  if  he  cannot  fix  the  price 
of  his  products,  but  it  will  show  him  the  real  cost 
of  production,  and  may  enable  him  to  lop  off  the 
unnecessary  expenses,  or  the  expense  he  might 
get  along  without,  or,  at  least,  enable  him  to  plan 
to  eliminate  some  of  the  expenses  of  production. 

The  real  cost  of  farm  operations  is  taxes,  in- 
surance, interest,  rental  value  of  land,  repairs  to 
buildings,  fences  and  machinery,  depreciation  of 
buildings,  fences,  horses,  mules,  machinery,  ani- 
mals kept  for  breeding  purposes  and  for  furnish- 
ing food  for  his  family,  grain  or  other  products 
used  for  food,  amount  expended  for  fertilizers  and 
for  seeds  planted  to  produce  crops  for  green  ma- 
nuring, expeditures  for  seeds  and  plants,  plowing, 
cultivating,  and  harvesting  and  hauling  products 
to  market. 

In  estimating  cost  of  marketing  products,  the 
actual  time  expended  in  the  process  of  hauling 
products  to  the  market  place  should  be  estimated 
as  well  as  the  time  consumed  in  shipping  to'  market 
and  its  incident  expense,  if  the  farmer  or  his  help 
accompanies  the  products  to  the  final  market  place, 
and  the  return  to  the  farm  home.  From  this  it 
will  be  seen  that  there  are  a  great  many  items  of 
cost  to  be  considered  in  making  up  the  real  items  of 
cost  of  farm  operations,  shipping  and  marketing 
of  farm  products.  So  if  the  farmer  has  no  voice 
in  fixing  the  market  price  of  his  products  he  can 
reduce  costs.    But  how? 

1st.  In  the  matter  of  repairs  to  buildings,  ma- 
chinery, fences,  etc.,  a  few  dollars  spent  at  the 


218       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

right  time  upon  buildings  in  the  way  of  paint,  and 
general  upkeep  may,  and  does,  save  many  dollars. 
As  instance  in  the  painting  of  buildings.  If  the 
farmer  would  paint  his  buildings  white  and  apply 
at  intervals  of  a  few  years  apart  of  but  a  single 
coat  of  paint,  his  buildings  would  not  only  present 
a  neat  appearance,  but  would  be  preserved  in- 
definitely. The  neglect  to  nail  on  the  loose  board, 
or  the  broken  doo-r  hinge,  or  the  replacing  of  a 
rotten  fence  post,  or  the  closing  of  barn  doors 
and  farm  gates,  results  in  the  loss  of  many  dollars, 
which  could  have  been  saved  with  a  little  foresight 
and  action.  The  failure  to  keep  machinery  in 
proper  repair  is  a  source  of  great  expense  which 
adds  much  to  the  cost  of  operation. 

2d.  The  use  of  poor  materials  in  the  construc- 
tion of  buildings,  fences,  etc.,  and  the  purchase  and 
use  of  poor  seeds  result  in  the  loss  of  many  dol- 
lars. It  never  pays  to  buy  the  **  shoddy '^  in  any- 
thing. The  best  is  none  too  good.  The  purchase 
of  materials  for  constructing  anything  upon  the 
farm  should  be  made  with  the  end  in  view  of  sub- 
stituting lasting  material  for  that  which  soon  de- 
cays, as  substituting  cement  for  wood  whenever 
possible. 

3d.  The  eliminating  of  the  farm  fence  and  re- 
ducing its  use  to  the  minimum,  would  not  only 
greatly  reduce  the  cost  of  farm  operations,  but 
add  untold  wealth  to  the  farms  of  our  coun- 
try by  the  bringing  into  cultivation  of  lands  occu- 
pied with  fences,  and  preserving  and  increasing 
the  fertility  of  vast  tracts  of  our  farm  lands  which 
are  tramped  to  their  death  by  the  stock  turned 
upon  them  to  gather  a  little  food,  resulting  in 


EEAL  COST  OF  OPERATION        219 

more  lot  feeding  with  its  accompanying  good  re- 
sults. 

4th.  The  use  of  the  best  and  most  improved 
farm  machinery.  The  best  farm  tool,  whether  for 
plowing,  cultivating,  or  marketing  and  general 
purposes,  is  the  one  that  will  do  the  work  in  the 
best  manner  and  in  the  quickest  time,  saves  horse 
flesh  or  other  motive  power.  If  a  farm  tractor  for 
plowing  can  be  installed  upon  the  farm  that  will 
do  the  proper  plowing  in  the  proper  time  and  at 
a  reduced  expense,  or  a  two-row  three-horse  cul- 
tivator can  be  put  in  use  that  saves  the  labor  of 
one  horse,  and  one  man,  and  yet  cultivates  the  same 
number  of  acres  in  a  day,  and  as  well  as  four  horses 
and  two  men  will  cultivate  with  two  two-horse 
cultivators,  it  can  readily  be  seen  that  a  farmer 
makes  no  mistake  in  installing  upon  his  farm  such 
machinery,  or  any  other  farm  machinery  of  like  na- 
ture, for  he  not  only  eliminates  cost  of  operation, 
but  helps  to  solve  the  labor  problem  on  the  farm. 
And  the  installation  of  labor  saving  machinery 
means  the  conservation  of  time  and  human  energy, 
which  means  much  to  the  farmer,  his  wife  and 
family  and  hired  help,  which  helps,  not  only  to 
eliminate,  but  to  solve  many  of  the  problems  of 
farm  life,  like  farm  labor,  reduced  hours  for 
labor,  keeping  the  boy  and  girl  upon  the  farm, 
and  giving  the  farmer  time  for  studying  his  farm 
problems,  and  for  right  and  better  farm  living. 

5th.  Better  machinery  for  transportation  of 
farm  products  and  better  roads.  The  wagon  and 
horses  have  long  been  and  will  continue  to  be  the 
farmer's  mode  of  transporting  his  products  to 
market,  and  if  the  farmer  is  much  removed  from 


220       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

market,  it  constitutes  a  slow  process  of  transporta- 
tion. Therefore  to  make  this  department  of  busi- 
ness of  farming  bear  its  proportion  of  reduced 
cost  of  farm  operations,  it  is  necessary  to  have 
the  best  and  most  modern  make  of  wagon,  which 
has  large  loading  capacity,  and  to  have  the  quick 
stepping  draught  horses,  capable  of  pulling  the 
heaviest  load.  But  even  this  would  avail  nothing 
if  the  farmer  does  not  have  the  best  improved 
highway  leading  from  his  farm  to  the  market,  and 
the  highway  so  improved  that  it  is  capable  of  bear- 
ing heavy  loads  at  all  seasons  of  the  year.  For 
what  does  even  the  improved  highway  profit  the 
farmer  if  he  cannot  haul  the  heavy  load  over  it  in 
the  soft  seasons  of  the  year  when  the  unimproved 
roads  are  impassable  and  the  markets  the  best? 

In  most  of  our  states  the  system  of  road  build- 
ing is  fairly  good,  but  the  system  of  road  mainte- 
nance is  a  shame  and  disgrace  to  our  civilization, 
and  causes  the  loss  of  millions  of  dollars  to  our 
farmers  in  the  way  of  hindrance  to  getting  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  best  market,  wear  and  tear  of 
vehicle,  ill  spent  money  for  road  repairs  and  in- 
ability to  haul  loads  of  full  capacity. 

If  the  farmer  living  remote,  or  even  close  to 
market,  has  the  outfit  to  haul  the  maximum  load, 
and  the  highway  upon  which  it  can  be  easily 
hauled,  he  saves  much  valuable  time  and  prevents 
much  wear  and  tear  of  his  wagons  and  horses, 
and  conserves  the  strength  and  life  of  his  horses, 
and  all  these  count  in  keeping  down  the  expense 
of  farm  operations. 

If  our  roads  were  built  right  and  were  main- 
tained right,  a  vast  saving  would  result  which 


EEAL  COST  OF  OPEEATTON        221 

would  reduce  our  taxes,  and  thus  another  item  of 
operating  expense  upon  the  farm  would  be  re- 
duced. Generally  our  roads  are  fairly  well  con- 
structed, but  in  most  instances,  as  soon  as  they  are 
constructed,  but  little  if  any  intelligent  attention  is 
paid  to  them.  They  soon  become  worn  into  ruts 
and  holes  which  gather  water,  that  softens  and  will 
wear  out  any  road,  and  in  a  few  short  years  they 
are  in  as  bad  a  condition  as  they  were  before  they 
were  improved.  An  intelligent  system  of  road 
maintenance  put  in  action  upon  our  improved 
highway  immediately  after  it  has  been  finished, 
and  maintained  without  cessation,  will  not  only 
keep  our  improved  highway  in  perfect  condition, 
but  will  decrease  by  one-half  or  more  the  cost  of 
road  maintenance  and  thus  reduce  our  taxes. 

At  no  distant  day  the  motor  truck  will  be  in 
common  use  upon  the  farm,  for  it  is  being  rapidly 
improved  in  that  direction,  and  cheapened  so  the 
farmer  can  afford  to  use  it.  When  the  motor  truck 
is  so  perfected  and  reduced  in  price,  it  will  be  the 
farmer  ^s  best,  quickest  and  cheapest  method  of 
transporting  his  products  to  market,  for  it  will 
mean  the  elimination  of  time  and  distance,  and 
thus  market  his  products  quickly,  in  the  best  con- 
dition, and  it  will  save  and  conserve  the  life  of  his 
horses,  and  the  shrinkage  in  weight  of  his  live 
stock  in  transit  to  market.  And  when  the  farm 
tractor  comes  into  general  use,  it  will  eliminate 
many  of  his  horses,  with  their  expense  of  keep, 
from  the  farm.  Even  to-day  with  the  high  priced 
motor  truck,  many  farmers  are  using  them  and  are 
greatly  reducing  the  cost  of  farm  operations.  If 
the  motor  truck  is  properly  handled  and  cared  for 


222       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAKMING 

when  not  in  use,  it  is  at  no  expense  except  for  in- 
surance and  tlie  slight  cost  of  depreciation.  This 
is  not  true  of  the  horse. 

In  the  hauling  of  grain  to  market,  like  wheat, 
oats  and  rye,  it  is  common  practice  to  put  the  same 
loose  in  the  wagon  bed.  So,  unless  the  bed  be  a 
tight  one,  much  grain  is  lost  along  the  highway, 
and  that  this  loss  is  considerable  and  much  more 
than  is  commonly  thought,  is  evident  to  the  ob- 
serving eye.  Eecently  this  fact  was  noticeably 
brought  to  the  author's  attention.  A  long,  dry 
period  was  experienced  and  the  public  highways 
became  very  dusty  and  much  wheat  and  oats  had 
been  hauled  to  market.  A  heavy  rain  fell  and  in 
a  few  days  the  highways  were  green  with  the  grow- 
ing grain  that  had  fallen  from  the  farmers' 
wagons  into  the  roadway.  The  loss  of  grain  may 
seem  inconsequent  to  the  reader,  but  take  pencil 
and  paper  and  figure  upon  the  basis  of  the  loss  of 
from  one  peck  to  a  bushel  of  grain  from  each  load 
hauled,  and  the  loss  will  equal  this  in  many  cases, 
and  the  percentage  of  loss  will  startle  you,  or 
would  startle  the  manufacturer  who  is  ever  alert 
to  discover  and  prevent  such  leakage  and  loss  in 
his  manufacturing  plant.  The  farmer,  as  well  as 
the  manufacturer,  must  study  to  eliminate  waste 
from  the  farm,  for  herein  lies  a  profit  worthy  of 
the  greatest  consideration. 

6th.  The  reduction  of  taxes.  Taxes,  like  death, 
are  ever  present,  and  are  a  necessary  evil.  Taxa- 
tion is  the  only  method  of  getting  funds  with  which 
to  keep  up  the  organization  of  our  society,  and  what 
would  life  be  without  the  well  regulated  society? 

To  procure  this  well  regulated  society,  govern- 


EEAL  COST  OF  OPERATION        223 

ment  with  its  attendant  train  of  officials  and  ex- 
penses  is   necessary.    We  believe   our  form   of 
government  to  be  the  best,  and  yet  there  are  evils 
and  misgovernment,  and  crude  methods  of  doing 
things  that  obtain  which  lead  to  a  reckless  and 
useless  expenditure  of  much  of  our  tax  money, 
which  calls  for  some  method  of  elimination.     The 
eliminating  process  can  only  be  brought  about  by 
the  election  of  men  to  office  who  are  honest  and 
have  the  broad  vision  of  governmental  affairs, 
who  know  something  of  the  principles  of  true 
economy,  and  who  know  how  to  do  things  right. 
When  such  men  are  elected  to  office,  then  we  will 
have  the  best  management  of  governmental  af- 
fairs ;  things  will  be  done  upon  the  best  permanent 
and  economical  basis  possible  to  be  obtained,  and 
our  taxes  will  thereby  be  reduced  to  the  minimum. 
The  farmer  can  assist  in  bringing  about  this  state 
of  affairs  when  he  becomes  enough  of  the  true 
politician  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  primaries 
and  assists  in  nominating  the  men  for  office  who 
come  up  to  the  standard  named,  and  to  vote  for, 
and  persuade  other  men  to  vote  for,  such  men 
whether  they  belong  to  his  party  or  to  another. 
The  farmer  has  it  in  his  power  to  make  himself 
felt  in  the  political  world  if  he  but  asserts  himself 
with  some  vigor.     The  author  has  had  a  long  and 
varied  experience  in  politics,  and  he  knows  that 
the  politician  fears  the  farmer  vote,  and  many  and 
varied  are  his  devices  to  keep  it  in  inactivity  un- 
less he  can  get  the  farmer's  activity  going  in  his 
direction.    Be  enough  of  the  politician  to  see  that 
the  right  men  are  elected  to  office,  and  that  the 
wrong  ones  who  have  been  elected  are  retired. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

FABM   OEEDITS   OR  FINANCING  THE  FARM 

THE  world  is  now  full  of  agitation  as  to  how 
best  to  finance  the  farmer.  One  nnfamiliar 
with  past  conditions  would  think  from  this  agita- 
tion that  the  farmer  of  the  past  or  present  had 
been  unable  and  could  not  now  borrow  a  dollar 
with  which  to  carry  on  his  farm  operations.  And 
yet  we  doubt  whether  there  has  scarcely  been  a 
period  in  the  agricultural  history  of  our  country 
but  what  the  average  farmer  could  borrow  all  the 
money  he  ought  to  have  had  for  his  farming  opera- 
tions. 

It  has  been  the  history  that  when  any  portion  of 
our  country  was  opened  up  for  settlement  among 
the  first  arrivals  were  the  bankers  and  the 
men  who  extended  credit  to  the  tillers  of  the  soil. 
In  fact,  the  farmer  has  ever  been  a  worthy  subject 
of  credit.  It  has  been  well  said  *Hhat  his  word 
has  been  taken  at  par, '  *  and  that  bankers  have  had 
more  confidence  in  the  integrity  of  the  farmer  than 
of  any  other  class. 

Thousands  of  farmers  have  been  able  to  borrow 
money  upon  no  security  other  than  their  reputa- 
tion for  honesty,  sobriety  and  industry,  and  the 
further  fact  that  they  were  engaged  in  a  business 
that  had  for  its  foundation  a  fertile  soil,  and  the 


^ 

;;     "j:^^^^ 

^^M^si^Mw 

ANOTHER  LESSON  IN  PICTURES. 

'But  other  fell  into  good  ground  and  brought  forth  fruit,  some 
an  hundred  fold." 


FARM  CEEDITS  225 

J- 

surroundings  of  a  seed  time  and  harvest  that  sel- 
dom failed.  So  with  these  conditions  obtaining, 
the  man  with  the  qualities  named  back  of  him, 
seldom  failed  to  make  good.  And  the  business  of 
farming  was  regarded  as  the  safest  and  best 
credit,  and  it  is  so  regarded  in  this  day,  notwith- 
standing much  of  our  soils  are  passing  to  an  un- 
profitable condition. 

There  have  been  times  in  our  country  when  no 
farmer  could  borrow  money,  or  if  he  could,  he 
was  compelled  to  pay  an  exorbitant  interest. 

During  the  panic  of  1903,  in  the  rich  corn  belt 
there  were  scores  of  farmers  who  lost  their  farms 
now  valued  at  $150  to  $200  per  acre,  because  of 
their  inability  to  get  their  mortgages  extended,  and 
the  author  personally  knows  of  instances  where 
mortgages  as  small  as  $3000  upon  160  acres  of  the 
best  land  ever  subjected  to  cultivation,  were  fore- 
closed because  banks  would  not  extend  credit. 
But  corn  was  selling  for  15c.  per  bushel  and  other 
farm  products  at  like  prices.  And  all  business 
was  in  the  throes  of  a  bitter,  galling  money  panic, 
and  every  business  man  was  being  touched  with 
its  blight. 

During  the  period  extending  from  1881  to  1903, 
it  came  under  the  personal  observation  of  the  au- 
thor that  vast  sums  of  money  had  been  loaned  to 
farmers  upon  mortgage  security  at  rates  of  in- 
terest which  were  criminal  usury,  but  these  un- 
fortunate farmers  had  gotten  deeply  in  debt  be- 
cause of  the  fact  that  they  were  either  pioneers  or 
direct  descendants  of  pioneers,  and  their  lands 
were  new  and  it  was  necessary  they  should  be 
cleared,  ditched,  fenced  and  improved.    Improved 


226       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

highways  and  public  ditches  became  a  necessity. 
So  the  doing  of  all  these  things,  and  they  were 
done  upon  a  most  extensive  scale,  called  for  the 
expenditure  of  large  sums  of  money.  The  price 
of  farm  products  was  low  and  so  the  average 
farmer  became  burdened  with  debt  and  became  an 
«asy  prey  to  money  lenders  who  took  advantage 
of  his  situation  to  promote  their  own  interests. 
The  farmer  seemed  to  be  classed  as  legitimate  prey 
along  the  money  lending  line.  Some  were  able  to 
weather  their  financial  storms,  but  scores  went 
down  under  the  cyclone  of  mortgage  foreclosure 
that  followed  as  a  result  of  their  inability  to  meet 
their  mortgages. 

It  may  be  safely  stated  that  as  a  rule  the  aver- 
age farmer  can  secure  money  or  credit  to  carry 
on  a  goodly  portion  of  his  farm  operations,  but  at 
the  same  time  the  author  has  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion from  personal  observation,  study  and  inter- 
views, that  the  business  of  farming  is  either  seri- 
ously lacking  in  the  necessary  capital  to  carry  on 
successfully  its  operations,  or  there  is  some  other 
cause  responsible  for  many  of  the  conditions  that 
obtain  upon  many  of  our  farms. 

Nine-tenths  of  our  farms  do  not  have  sufficient 
buildings  to  house  the  necessary  farm  machinery 
to  run  the  farm  and  so  enough  farm  machinery  is 
exposed  each  year  to  weather  conditions  that  re- 
sults in  ahnost  enough  loss  to  pay  the  national 
debt.  No  farmer  would  leave  his  implements  ex- 
posed if  he  had  the  proper  buildings  in  which  to 
house  them.  He  simply  does  not  have  the  money 
to  build  the  buildings  in  which  to  properly  care  for 
them  and  so  does  the  best  he  can,  or  he  fails  to  do 


FAEM  CEEDITS  227 

it  for  other  reasons.  The  same  is  true  with  his 
buildings  for  stock  and  his  fences. 

Many  farms  need  ditching,  better  plowing,  fer- 
tilization with  limestone,  green  crops,  manure  and 
other  methods,  but  the  farmer  cannot  install  these 
things  upon  his  farm  for  lack  of  capital. 

The  average  farmer  knows  the  profit  to  himself 
and  farm  in  the  production  of  live  stock  upon  the 
farm.  But  to  do  this  requires  capital  which  many 
cannot  get  for  this  purpose,  or  if  it  can  be  secured, 
the  interest  is  so  high  that  stock  production  does 
not  pay. 

We  have  already  shown  that  the  better  plowing 
of  the  soil  is  neglected  because  farmers  do  not 
have  sufficient  money  to  buy  the  heavy  draft  horses 
or  other  proper  motive  power  with  which  it  can  only 
be  brought  about.  And  so  we  could  go  on  and  enu- 
merate many  things  that  are  not  done  upon  the 
farm  for  lack  of  capital. 

If  it  may  be  safely  stated  that  the  many  worthy 
farmers  can  under  present  conditions  obtain  about 
all  the  money  they  need,  that  many  can  secure  all 
they  should  have,  but  yet,  does  it  not  remain  a  fact 
that  many  ought  to  have  more  capital  who  can  not 
get  it,  and  especially  many  who  wish  and  who 
ought  to  get  back  to  land  who  cannot  under  present 
conditions  secure  the  necessary  capital  to  accom- 
plish their  desires? 

We  have  already  shown  that  the  system  or  plan 
adopted  by  which  the  capital  can  be  secured  must 
be  safeguarded  in  many  ways. 

The  government  has  had  a  policy  by  which  in 
the  several  states  a  school  fund  was  obtained  by 
the  sale  of  every  sixteenth  section  of  land  when 


228       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

lands  were  thrown  upon  the  market  by  the  govern- 
ment. This  fund  was  loaned  in  Indiana  to 
farmers  upon  farm  real  estate,  the  loans  being 
made  up  to  one-half  the  appraised  value  of  the 
land,  and  were  made  for  five  years'  time  at  six 
per  cent,  interest,  and  thereafter  could  be  con- 
tinued for  as  long  a  period  as  desired  by  the  bor- 
rower. 

The  majority  of  these  loans  ran  for  years  and 
it  is  questionable  whether  they  were  a  good  thing 
for  the  farmer.  The  farmer  knew  they  did  not 
have  to  be  paid  when  due ;  that  they  could  be  con- 
tinued as  long  as  the  interest  was  paid.  At  one 
time  the  author  was  employed  by  a  county  to  look 
up  these  loans,  and  where  they  were  delinquent, 
to  see  that  they  were  either  paid  or  renewed.  He 
found  that  in  many  cases  they  were  made  upon 
lands  not  valuable  which  had  been  over  appraised 
and  owned  by  thriftless  farmers,  so  a  large  num- 
ber of  these  loans  had  gone  for  over  twenty  years 
without  anything  being  paid  upon  the  principal. 

A  long  time  loan  made  upon  land  well  up  to  its 
real  value  should  have  a  required  yearly  payment 
clause,  at  least  after  three  years,  as  this  will  pro- 
mote economy  and  thrift.  Of  course  time  should 
be  given  the  borrower  to  become  established  upon 
his  land,  but  as  long  as  he  knows  he  can  carry  the 
loan  for  a  long  series  of  years  without  being  re- 
quired to  make  any  payment  upon  the  .principal, 
he  will  not  likely  make  any  effort  to  adjust  his 
affairs  and  expenditures  so  as  to  meet  payments. 

So  the  best  method  of  safeguarding  a  system  of 
farm  credits  is  to  get  into  it  the  element  of  fear, — 
fear  of  loss  and  foreclosure.    Let  the  borrower 


FAEM  CEEDITS  229 

understand  lie  must  in  the  course  of  a  reasonable 
time  begin  to  make  some  payment  upon  his  loan 
or  suffer  the  consequence  of  his  neglect. 

It  is  said  that  mortgaged  indebtedness  on  the 
farms  is  on  the  increase.  And  so  is  the  indebted- 
ness of  city  business  on  the  increase.  In  fact, 
national,  state,  and  municipal  indebtedness  is  on 
the  increase.  The  debt  machine  everywhere  is 
running  at  too  high  a  rate  of  speed.  Extrav- 
agance has  extended  into  both  private  and  public 
affairs.  It  is  our  national  sin  and  there  ought  to 
be  a  slowing  down  process.  But  at  the  same  time 
we  must  consider  that  it  is  a  truth  that  there  would 
have  been  but  little  progress  in  this  country  of 
ours  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  vast  sums  of  money 
available  for  the  borrower.  Few  men  would  en- 
gage in  the  business  or  undertake  to  carry  on  our 
different  enterprises  and  business  if  they  were 
the  owners  of  large  capital.  The  men  who  built  up 
both  the  large  and  small  prosperous  enterprises, 
no  matter  whether  found  in  city  or  town,  have 
been  the  industrious,  honest  men  without  capital, 
who  had  the  confidence  of  the  money  loaner  and 
began  and  carried  to  success  their  enterprises  al- 
most solely  upon  borrowed  capital.  There  is  no 
reason  to  expect  that  there  will  be  a  change  of  con- 
ditions in  this  respect  in  the  future.  We  must 
expect  that  all  lines  of  business  will  be  transacted 
by  men  who  will  be  large  borrowers  of  capital. 

It  is  shown  by  statistics  that  in  1910  it  required 
six  billions  of  borrowed  money  to  produce  the 
eight  billion  dollar  crop  of  the  year,  upon  which 
there  was  paid  an  average  rate  of  8%  per  cent, 
interest.    But  statistics  will  show  that  the  busi- 


230       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEAIING 

ness  of  the  city  required  as  large,  if  not  a  larger 
amount  of  money  in  proportion  to  business  done, 
to  successfully  carry  it  on.  However,  it  is  said 
the  city  business  man  has  been  able  to  borrow  his 
money  at  a  lower  rate  of  interest  than  the  farmer. 

If  this  be  true  an  injustice  is  being  done  to  the 
farmer,  for  if  the  business  of  farming  is  the  very 
foundation  of  every  other  business,  and  the  very 
existence  of  man  depends  upon  it,  it  ought  to  be 
able  to  even  secure  the  capital  necessary  to  carry 
it  on  at  the  lowest  possible  rate  of  interest.  We 
must  safeguard  it  in  this  respect  or  our  nation 
goes  into  decay  and  death. 

We  are  removing  the  hindrances  to  the  business 
of  farming  by  better  education,  better  farm  litera- 
ture, better  marketing  facilities  and  in  numerous 
other  ways,  but  we  must  not  neglect  the  main 
thing,  the  *  *  sinews  of  war  * '  of  the  business  of  farm- 
ing, capital.  For  without  capital  at  living  rates 
of  interest,  the  farmer  is  helpless. 

The  political  demagogue  in  this  country  has  done 
much  to  lessen  the  supply  of  money  for  the  busi- 
ness of  farming.  It  seems  that  most  of  us  have 
been  so  busy  with  our  personal  affairs  that  we  for- 
got to  attend  the  primaries  or  conventions  and  so 
we  have  sent  men  to  our  legislative  bodies,  many 
of  whom  were  as  ignorant  of  business  as  little  chil- 
dren, or  else  were  unscrupulous,  and  so  laws  have 
been  enacted  under  the  guise  of  correcting  imagi- 
nary evils,  which  have  actually  driven  legitimate 
capital  from  some  of  our  states  to  the  detriment  of 
the  business  of  farming. 

But  the  tide  is  turning  and  the  nation  is  realiz- 
ing that  capital  is  a  legitimate  enterprise  with  its 


FARM  CREDITS  231 

evils  the  same  as  you  find  in  every  line  of  human 
enterprise,  that  can  be  controlled  and  directed  by 
sane  legislation  so  that  it  will  be  the  power  for 
good  it  was  intended  to  be  in  every  community  of 
our  land.  We  must  safeguard  capital,  labor,  and 
business  enterprise,  and  give  them  the  broadest 
opportunity,  and  thanks  to  a  sane  and  safe  man  at 
the  head  of  our  nation,  the  things  are  being  done 
that  will  open  the  way  for  this  greater  opportun- 
ity. When  the  way  is  open  and  it  is  made  safe 
from  the  political  demagogue  or  other  piratical  in- 
fluences, then  will  capital  begin  its  journey  and  go 
into  every  part  and  portion  of  our  land,  extending 
its  helping  hand  to  business  enterprises.  When 
capital  is  seeking  and  importuning  for  opportunity 
of  investment,  then  down  comes  the  rates  of  in- 
terest and  there  is  opportunity  for  the  honest  bor- 
rower to  secure  all  the  money  he  needs  in  any  legit- 
imate business. 


CHAPTEE  XVIII 

THE    CONSERVATION   OF   HEALTH   AND   HUMAN   LIFE 
ON    THE   FARM 

THE  conservation  of  human  life  in  the  poverty 
and  vice  districts  of  our  congested  cities  is  a 
tremendous  problem,  touching  the  heart  and  purse 
of  our  philanthropic  spirit.  It  is,  however,  as  im- 
portant a  problem  in  the  workingmen  and  working 
women  districts  of  our  cities.  The  incessant  toil 
and  grind  of  our  underpaid  workers,  struggling 
against  the  ever  rising  tide  of  the  high  cost  of  liv- 
ing, is  cruelly  breaking  down  the  ambition,  the 
hope,  the  courage,  and  crushing  the  health  and 
lives  out  of  millions  of  our  people. 

But  the  farm  has  not  been  without  this  human 
tragedy.  It  does  not,  however,  exist  to-day  to  so 
great  an  extent  as  in  past  periods  of  our  farm 
history.  In  the  cities  it  is  hard  to  remedy  the 
condition  of  the  underfed  and  the  overworked; 
in  the  country  there  has  never  been  any  excuse  for 
its  existence. 

The  author  has  seen  the  farmer  with  his  broad 
acres  and  large,  young  family,  going  the  pace  of 
the  grind  that  drives  from  the  farm  to  the  city, 
the  insane  asylum,  and  that  kills. 

Plenty  of  work  amid  healthful  surroundings, 
with  enough  of  the  right  kind  of  food,  properly 
prepared,  with  plenty  of  the  life-giving  balm  of 

232 


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CONSERVATION  OF  HEALTH       233 

sleep,  a  dash  of  harmless  amusement  and  recrea- 
tion, never  kills  any  man,  woman  or  child.  It  is 
only  the  incessant  work  amid  conditions  that 
breeds  disease,  without  food  properly  cooked  for 
eating,  and  without  the  period  of  relaxation  and 
rest,  that  kills.  The  author  has  seen  the  young 
farmer  and  wife,  even  on  a  farm  of  160  or  more 
acres,  arise  at  the  unseemly  hour  of  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  rousing  out  the  young  family  of 
six  or  more  children,  putting  them  to  work  in  the 
preparation  of  the  breakfast,  feeding  of  the  stock, 
harnessing  of  work  horses,  etc.,  then  sitting  down 
to  a  quickly  and  illy  prepared  breakfast,  gulping 
it  down  in  haste ;  then  the  father  hurrying  the  boys 
to  the  field  long  before  the  morning  light  had  lit 
up  the  landscape,  where,  with  broken  rest  and 
tired  bodies,  they  listlessly  toiled  until  the  dinner 
hour.  The  mother  would  hurry  the  girls  to  the 
milking,  the  care  of  the  house,  poultry  and  the 
garden,  they  toiling  under  the  same  conditions  of 
broken  rest  and  tired  bodies.  The  dinner  and 
supper  hour  were  but  the  repetition  of  the  hurly- 
burly  of  the  morning.  Work  in  the  fields  and 
household  extended  far  into  the  fading  twilight. 
Chores  about  the  house  and  barn  were  done  by 
lamp  light.  The  beds  were  sought  by  tired,  un- 
relaxed  bodies,  who  secured  but  a  fitful  sleep,  only 
to  be  awakened  for  the  same  daily  monotonous 
grind.  A  few  years,  including  both  winter  and 
summer  of  this  kind  of  cruel  living  bent  and 
wrinkled  the  once  blitheful,  pretty  body  and  face  of 
the  mother,  made  her  body  an  easy  prey  of  disease 
and  she  was  stricken  with  an  untimely  death.  She 
would  be  laid  among  the  weeds  and  brush  growth 


234       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

in  an  average  neglected  country  burying  ground, 
and  a  cheap  stone  erected  at  the  head  of  her  grave, 
upon  which,  through  the  weeds  and  brush,  you  may 
see  inscribed  *^  Sacred  to  the  Memory  of  Eliza 
Jane,  Wife  of  John  Jones.''  A  more  fitting  in- 
scription would  have  been  **Here  Lies  the  Tired 
Worn-out  Body  of  Eliza  Jane,  Wife  of  John  Jones, 
whose  life  was  crushed  out  by  an  Unnecessary 
System  of  Farm  Living.'' 

Insufficient  sanitation  and  the  deadly  well  have 
given  death  a  rich  harvest  upon  the  farm.  The 
author  has  seen  almost  whole  families  swept  away 
by  the  deadly  typhoid  fever  whose  origin  was 
traced  to  a  contaminated  or  neglected  well,  or  to 
some  cesspool  near  the  farm  dwelling.  The  ex- 
istence of  these  death  traps  are  due  to  ignorance, 
indifference,  or  laziness.  There  is  not  the  slight- 
est excuse  for  their  existence  upon  the  farm. 

A  farmer  owes  it  to  his  family  to  furnish  them, 
as  well  as  himself,  with  plenty  of  pure  water  which 
is  the  great  preventative  of  disease.  A  pure  water 
supply  upon  most  farms  can  only  be  obtained  by 
the  driven  or  drilled  well  put  down  to  a  sufficient 
depth  to  secure  water  from  a  stratum  which  can- 
not be  reached  by  surface  contamination.  The 
open  or  dug  well  or  the  shallow  driven  or  drilled 
well,  are  nearly  always  death  traps  and  should  be 
avoided  as  a  pestilence.  The  author  has  seen 
water  drawn  from  dozens  of  farm  wells  that  was 
ill  smelling  and  with  a  most  repulsive  taste. 
These  waters  were  laden  with  the  germs  of  the 
most  fatal  diseases,  and  yet  their  owners  were 
making  no  effort  to  improve  them.  That  the  peo- 
ple who  partook  of  the  water  of  these  wells  were 


CONSERVATION  OF  HEALTH       235 

not  stricken  with  fatal  diseases  was  because  their 
bodies  were  in  condition  to  resist  diseases,  but 
alas!  the  cemeteries  contain  the  decayed  and  de- 
caying bodies  of  scores  of  people  whose  bodies 
could  not  resist  or  throw  off  these  disease  germs 
and  so  they  were  stricken  down  before  their  time, 
upon  each  of  whose  tombstones  should  be  inscribed 
*'A  Victim  of  the  Contaminated  Well,''  as  a  warn- 
ing to  the  living. 

A  short  time  ago  the  author  visited  a  farm  home 
where  the  good  wife  of  the  farmer  lay  stricken 
with  a  severe  case  of  typhoid  fever.  For  location, 
the  farm  was  beautifully  and  healthfully  situated. 
So  the  author  began  to  look  about  to  see  if  he  could 
find  the  source  of  the  dread  disease.  The  yards 
surrounding  both  home  and  barn  were  ideal. 
They,  as  well  as  all  out  buildings  were  clean,  well 
drained  and  free  from  any  filth  which  would  har- 
bor typhoid  germs.  Knowing  that  typhoid  fever 
is,  in  the  largest  number  of  cases,  contracted  from 
typhoid  germs  found  in  the  drinking  water,  the 
author  investigated  the  well  and  found  an  alarm- 
ing state  of  affairs,  which  in  his  judgment,  was  the 
source  of  the  disease,  yet  the  family  seemed  utterly 
unconscious  of  this  fact.  The  well  was  situated 
close  to  the  house  in  an  angle  of  the  building.  It 
was  a  shallow  well  covered  with  large  boards  laid 
upon  the  ground  around  the  well,  which  left  large 
cracks  between  each  board.  This  loosely  con- 
structed platform  was  about  fifteen  feet  square, 
and  to  enter  the  kitchen  and  another  room  of  the 
house,  it  was  necessary  to  pass  over  it.  The  dirt 
of  the  barnyard  and  barns  were  carried  by  the  feet 
upon  this  platform.    The  dirt  from  the  home  was 


236       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

swept  upon  this  platform.  The  platform  could 
not  possibly  be  cleaned  without  a  great  portion  of 
this  filth  being  swept  or  washed  into  the  cracks  of 
the  boards.  There  being  no  shed  over  the  plat- 
form, the  rains  fell  upon  it.  The  kitchen  floor  was 
scrubbed  and  the  dirty  water  swept  out  upon  the 
platform.  The  water  from  the  scrubbing  and  the 
rains  carried  the  filth  and  dirt  down  into  the  well. 
The  season  being  dry,  the  water  became  low,  ty- 
phoid germs  developed  in  the  drinking  water. 
The  woman's  body  was  not  in  condition  to  resist 
disease  and  she  was  stricken,  and  it  was  easy  to  see 
from  whence  she  contracted  the  awful  malady. 

If  a  farmer  has  a  well  with  even  the  suspicion  of 
contamination,  all  other  work  on  the  farm  should 
be  suspended  until  this  evil  is  corrected.  If  he 
has  not  the  money  to  pay  for  its  correction,  he  had 
better  borrow  it,  and  if  he  can  not  borrow  it,  he 
had  better  sell  the  best  horse  or  cow  on  the  farm 
to  secure  the  necessary  money. 

Health  and  human  life  can  be  greatly  conserved 
on  the  farm  by  properly  constructed  dwellings 
providing  for  the  disposal  of  sewerage  and  wastes, 
but  more  of  this  in  another  chapter. 

It  is  useless  to  attempt  to  conserve  health  and 
life  upon  the  farm  unless  they  who  reside  on  the 
farm  are  supplied  with  plenty  of  wholesome,  well, 
and  properly  cooked  food.  To  some  this  may 
seem  a  strange  statement,  considering  that  the 
average  farm  produces  so  much  and  so  varied  a 
supply  of  human  food.  Many  of  our  farm  wives 
and  daughters  are  good  cooks  and  put  upon  their 
tables  meals  fit  for  a  king,  and  as  health  giving  as 


CONSEEVATION  OF  HEALTH       237 

can  be  prepared.  But  do  not  deceive  yourselves 
by  thinking  that  this  condition  obtains  generally 
now  upon  the  farm,  and  has  always  so  obtained. 
The  summers  of  six  years  of  the  author's  life  were 
spent  in  following  his  trade  of  a  stone  and  brick 
mason,  and  a  large  amount  of  his  work  at  his  trade 
was  done  for  farmers,  and  he  was  compelled  to 
board  among  them.  The  memories  of  a  great 
number  of  the  meals  of  these  days  haunt  him  yet. 
Tired  and  hungry  from  his  work  he  has  sat  down 
to  meals,  prepared  by  farmers'  wives  who  had  at 
hand  a  burden  of  the  best  food  products  of  the 
farm  and  proper  facilities  for  cooking  same,  that 
were  enough  to  sicken  the  stoutest  stomach.  And 
these  were  not  isolated  cases  by  any  means. 
Their  number  was  appalling  and  they  were  found 
in  the  '^best  families."  The  author  was  un- 
married then,  but  he  vowed  a  vow  that  he  would 
never  marry  any  woman  until  he  first  ascertained 
whether  she  was  a  good  cook,  and  he  is  happy  to 
state  that  he  found  just  such  a  woman  and  that 
she  was  a  product  of  the  farm,  and  learned  the 
fine  art  of  domestic  science  from  a  skilled  country 
mother. 

A  system  providing  for  the  proper  number  of 
hours  of  labor,  with  improved  labor-strength- 
saving  machinery,  sane  periods  of  rest  amid 
healthful  or  sanitary  surroundings,  plenty  of  well 
cooked  food,  supplemented  with  liberal  amounts 
of  recreation,  will  do  much  to  conserve  the  health 
of  human  life  upon  the  farm,  and  every  farmer 
owes  it,  not  only  to  himself  and  his  family,  but 
to  mankind,  to  put  forth  every  effort  along  these 


238       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

conservation  lines  for  herein  is  based  the  hap- 
piness and  the  prosperity  of  the  farm,  for  without 
health  we  are  indeed  surrounded  with  ^*  shallows 
and  miseries.'' 


> 


CHAPTER  XIX 

FARM   BOOKKEEPIKG 

EVERY  man  engaged  in  a  business  ought  to 
keep  a  set  of  books  in  order  to  know  whether 
his  business  pays.  If  it  does  not  pay  he  of  course 
will  find  it  out  in  due  time,  although  he  kept  no 
record  of  his  business  transactions.  But  that  time 
may  be  too  late.  He  may  be  in  the  throes  of  bank- 
ruptcy. Some  system  of  bookkeeping  is  necessary 
in  every  line  of  business.  Bookkeeping  is  the 
chart  and  compass  necessary  to  have  in  sailing  the 
ship  of  business  upon  the  mercantile  sea. 

City  business  requires  a  more  elaborate  system 
of  bookkeeping  and  so  men  are  employed  as  book- 
keepers well  trained  in  the  art.  A  trial  balance 
is  necessary  to  ascertain  the  drift  of  the  business. 

But  few  engaged  in  the  business  of  farming 
could  afford  to  employ  a  bookkeeper  to  keep  track 
of  farming  operations,  so  the  system  of  farm  book- 
keeping must  be  of  the  simplest  kind.  The  aver- 
age farmer  would  not  recognize  a  trial  balance  no 
matter  where  he  might  come  in  contact  with  it. 
And  it  is  not  necessary  that  he  should  recognize  it 
in  order  that  he  may  successfully  carry  on  his  busi- 
ness. 

The  richest  farmers  the  author  ever  knew  were 
men  who  could  neither  read  nor  write.    He  recalls 

239 


240       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

one  farmer  who  loaned  thousands  of  dollars  to 
scores  of  parties,  and  yet  he  could  tell  to  a  cent 
the  amount  of  interest  that  was  due  at  any  time 
upon  any  of  his  loans,  and  the  amount  of  the  loans, 
when  due,  etc. 

And  the  author  has  known  farmers  who  kept  a 
good  system  of  farm  bookkeeping  that  made  fail- 
ures of  their  business.  But  neither  of  these  cases 
argue  for  or  against  farm  bookkeeping. 

Farmers  of  the  past  generally  had  no  training 
whatever  in  the  art  of  bookkeeping,  and  even  if 
they  had,  the  exaction  of  their  business  was  such 
that  they  were  too  tired  at  the  close  of  their  day's 
work  to  spend  much  time  in  bookkeeping. 

But  the  up  to  date  scientific  farmer  with  the  im- 
proved farm  machinery  that  lessens  his  hours  of 
toil  has  the  time  untaxed  from  physical  exertion 
to  devote  to  a  simple  system  of  a  farm  bookkeeping 
which  ought  to  be  instituted  upon  his  farm. 

For  years  the  author  has  kept  a  farm  diary  in 
which  he  has  daily  written  a  short  account,  show- 
ing the  kind  of  weather  and  what  was  done  upon 
the  farm  in  each  particular  day  of  the  year.  This 
has  proven  of  great  value  to  him.  As  in  the 
former  year's  record  he  found  much  that  was  of 
value  for  the  present  year's  operations,  in  these 
daily  records  he  kept  the  time  of  labor  employed 
for  each  day,  and  names  of  parties  who  performed 
the  labor,  the  kind  of  labor  done,  and  also  of  any 
expenditures  or  purchases.  His  diary  thus  be- 
came a  simple  day  journal  by  which  he  kept  a  com- 
plete track  of  his  farm  operations,  and  the  time 
consumed  in  keeping  this  record  was  so  small  that 
it  was  not  irksome  in  the  least.    It  was  done  at 


FAEM  BOOKKEEPING  241 

the  close  of  each  day  before  retiring.  In  connec- 
tion with  this  simple  diary  he  kept  an  account  of 
articles  purchased  for  the  farm,  and  of  every 
article  sold,  showing  purchaser  and  price  received 
for  each  article  sold. 

From  such  a  simple  system  of  bookkeeping  the 
average  farmer  ought  to  be  able  to  know  whether 
his  business  pays.  He  can  easily  tell  whether  he 
is  prospering.  He  may  not  be  able  to  figure  de- 
preciation, interest  on  capital,  charges  for  his  own 
labor  and  such  things  to  that  nicety  and  exactness 
that  the  trained  bookkeeper  with  his  elaborate 
trial  balances  would  be  able  to  figure  out,  nor 
would  he  debit  his  business  with  every  cent  it  ought 
to  be  debited  with,  but  he  would  know  whether  he 
is  ^ Agoing  into  the  hole,"  or  how  much  he  was 
running  behind  each  year.  It  would  not  require  an 
elaborate  system  of  bookkeeping  to  show  him  that 
he  had  a  home  surrounded  with  the  comforts  and 
pleasures  of  life  and  was  possessed  of  a  business 
that  had  great  possibilities  for  those  other  profits 
that  were  greater  to  him  than  **  bookkeeping 
profits. ' ' 

An  elaborate  system  of  bookkeeping  upon  the 
farm  no  doubt  might  in  many  cases  teach  us  that  a 
real  farm  home  might  not  be  a  money  making  in- 
stitution, but  as  some  one  has  said  a  real  farm 
home  *  4s  a  place  to  live,  not  a  place  to  make  a  liv- 
ing. A  place  to  rest,  not  to  toil.  A  place  to  meet 
friends,  not  customers.'' 

A  complete  system  of  bookkeeping  upon  the 
farm  figuring  depreciation,  interest,  insurance 
upon  his  property  upon  which  there  is  no  debt,  and 
the  farmer's  labor  would  doom  every  farmer  to  a 


242       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

loss,  whicli  if  eliminated  in  calculations  would 
show  a  handsome  profit  in  his  farm  operations. 

Keep  in  mind  the  rational  home  rather  than  ra- 
tional bookkeeping.  If  you  are  a  **back  to  the 
lander"  don't  forget  the  expense  and  annoyance 
of  the  flat  or  other  city  dwelling,  and  the  city  liv- 
ing you  escaped.  Compare  it  in  all  things  with  the 
farm  living.  Consider  the  standard  of  living  you 
now  have  for  your  family. 

The  elaborate  system  of  bookkeeping  will  figure 
cost  of  farm  operations  down  to  the  greatest  frac- 
tion of  a  cent,  but  it  will  never  figure  the  comforts, 
the  pleasures  and  the  profits  of  the  good  living 
your  farm  gives  or  sells,  although  it  may  not  give 
or  sell  the  profit  in  dollars  and  cents. 

But  we  still  believe  the  farmer  ought  to  become 
familiar  with  farm  bookkeeping  and  put  it  into 
practice  in  his  business  for  it  may  show  him  where 
he  can  eliminate  waste  and  how  to  curtail  expenses 
in  many  ways  that  will  make  his  business  more 
profitable. 

The  system  of  bookkeeping  for  the  farm  should 
therefore  be  one  with  the  frills  of  the  city  book- 
keeping left  off.  A  simple  record  of  farm  trans- 
actions from  which  any  farmer  could  be  able  to 
ascertain  whither  his  business  is  drifting  finan- 
cially, is  all  that  is  needed. 

We  believe  that  the  curriculum  of  agricultural 
studies,  no  matter  whether  for  the  public  schools 
or  colleges,  should  give  bookkeeping  a  prominent 
place,  for  knowledge  of  this  subject  will  make  it 
easier  for  the  man  engaged  in  the  business  of 
farming  to  keep  up  even  a  simple  system  of  farm 
bookkeeping  and  will  also  enable  him  to  keep  the 


FAEM  BOOKKEEPING  243 

more  elaborate  bookkeeping  system  as  well,  if  his 
fancy  should  prompt  him  to  indulge  in  the  higher 
lines  of  bookkeeping. 

The  details  of  every  business  should  be  closely 
looked  after,  but  the  slave  to  details  is  apt  to  over- 
look the  essential  thing  in  his  zeal  for  details. 
Therefore,  the  farmer  who  spends  the  time, 
energy,  and  thought,  upon  the  mere  details  of  his 
business  like  bookkeeping  and  the  like,  that  should 
be  spent  in  looking  after  the  essential  things  of  his 
farm,  like  proper  care  of  his  stock  or  his  soil,  is 
sacriiulcing  too  much  for  the  minor  things  of  his 
business. 

While  farm  bookkeeping  should  not  be  omitted 
from  our  farm  economy,  yet  the  business  of  farm- 
ing has  been  carried  on  successfully  by  a  great 
number  of  persons  without  it,  and  could  be  so  car- 
ried on  in  the  future.  The  point  we  wish  to  em- 
phasize is,  look  after  the  essentials  first  and  do  not 
attempt  to  do  those  things  to  a  nicety  that  are  not 
so  essential  to  the  success  of  your  business. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  RETIRED  FARMER  AND  THE  FARMER  AS  AN  OFFICE 
HOLDER  AND  CITY  BUSINESS  MAN 

WHEN  we  consider  the  startling  fact  that 
eighty  per  cent,  of  the  cities'  business 
and  professional  men,  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  men 
and  forty-five  per  cent,  of  the  women  teachers  in 
our  city  public  schools,  were  reared  on  the  farm, 
and  that  these  men  and  women  are  of  the  best 
blood  of  our  farms,  is  it  not  time  to  stop  and  in- 
quire what  is  the  matter  with  the  business  of  farm- 
ing that  allows  this  blood  to  flow  from  its  region 
into  the  region  of  city  life  ? 

Is  there  a  plethora  of  workers,  brains  and  good 
blood  upon  the  farm  which  is  compelled  to  seek 
employment  elsewhere  in  order  to  exist?  We  are 
loathe  to  believe  it,  at  least  we  will  not  believe  it, 
until  every  mouth  in  our  land  is  filled  three  times 
a  day  with  enough  food  to  satisfy  the  pangs  of 
hunger,  and  every  human  body  of  our  land  is 
comfortably  clothed  from  the  products  of  the  farm. 

Of  course  our  cities  will  ever  continue  to  gather 
from  the  farms  its  best  blood,  but  some  awful 
wrong  is  being  allowed  to  exist  when  so  great  a 
per  cent,  of  the  farm's  best  blood  is  allowed  to 
flow  unrestricted  to  the  city.  This  blood  is  needed 
upon  the  farms  and  will  be  more  needed  if  our 
soils  are  permitted  to  continue  upon  their  road  to 

244 


THE  EETIEED  FAEMER  245 

destruction,  as  mucli  of  them  are  being  headed  in 
that  direction  by  a  thoughtless  method  of  farming. 
But  we  have  already  called  attention  to  this  hin- 
drance to  the  business  of  farming,  and  have  given 
the  remedy  which  will  largely  correct  it. 

There  is  another  deplorable  state  of  affairs  ob- 
taining in  many  portions  of  our  fair  land  to-day 
that  means  a  greater  menace  to  the  business  of 
farming.  In  most  any  city  of  two  thousand  in- 
habitants, and  over,  and  in  most  all  our  villages  of 
less  than  two  thousand  inhabitants,  we  find  al- 
ready erected  or  in  the  process  of  erection,  innu- 
merable houses  of  no  mean  design  and  dimension, 
which  have  been  erected  or  are  being  erected  by 
farmers  who  have,  and  are  retiring  from  their 
farms  and  leaving  them  in  the  hands  of  tenants. 
And  it  is  a  distressing  fact  that  the  larger  per  cent, 
of  these  farmers  must  depend  upon  the  returns  of 
their  farms  for  their  support,  and  a  deplorable 
fact  that  their  farms  are  leased  under  the  one  year 
plan  that  means  certain  death  to  any  farm.  More 
than  thirty  per  cent,  of  the  farm  lands  of  our 
country  are  in  the  hands  of  tenants  already,  and 
the  percentage  is  increasing  at  an  alarming  rate. 

This  state  of  affairs  can  and  does  mean  nothing 
else  than  the  awful  fact  that  the  acres  of  these 
rented  farms  will  be  put  under  the  lash,  and  the 
**whip  and  spur  method  of  farming '*  will  obtain 
upon  them,  and  they  will  be  forced  to  produce 
every  dollar  they  can  that  both  tenant  and  land- 
lord may  live.  Not  even  the  thought  of  soil  con- 
servation or  fertility  maintenance  will  ever  be  al- 
lowed to  enter  the  minds  of  either  tenant  or  land- 
lord, and  year  by  year,  under  such  methods  of 


246       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

fanning,  the  acres  of  these  farms  will  lose  little  by 
little,  yea,  much  by  much,  of  their  fertility  until 
within  less  than  a  generation  barrenness  and 
sterility  will  be  their  doom. 

Do  not  understand  that  the  author  is  condemn- 
ing the  tenant  or  a  proper  tenant  system.  They 
are  both  a  legitimate  and  necessary  part  of  our 
farm  economy  and  must  be  conserved  along  right 
lines.  But  to  accomplish  and  bring  about  this 
state  of  affairs  there  must  be  in  some  manner  in- 
stilled into  the  hearts  of  both  landlord  and  tenant 
the  spirit  of  '*fair  play."  The  miserly,  grasp- 
ing, exacting  landlord  and  the  tenant  thieving 
'^whip  and  spur"  method  of  farming  make  a  com- 
bination that  will  bankrupt  any  landlord  or  tenant, 
or  drive  any  soil  into  abandonment. 

We  have  already  said  something  about  the  ten- 
ant system  obtaining  in  England.  A  system  by 
which  landlords  rent  their  lands  for  a  series  of 
years,  in  many  cases  for  periods  of  twenty  years, 
and  receive  for  rental  as  much  as  $20  or  even  more 
per  acre.  But  the  tenants  proceed  to  farm  these 
lands  as  if  they  were  their  own.  They  farm  them 
to  make  them  pay.  They  feed  the  lands  with 
animal,  mineral  and  green  manure.  They  plow 
deep  and  give  the  best  possible  tillage  and  grow 
the  crops  that  are  in  demand  and  produce  the 
quality  that  commands  the  best  market.  These 
tenants  without  exception  are  prospering  and 
many  of  them  are  amassing  wealth.  The  landlord 
not  only  receives  a  large  yearly  rental,  but  receivea 
the  increase  in  value  of  the  fertile  farm. 

Can  any  one  advance  a  sound  reason  why  such 
things  are  not  possible  in  this  the  land  of  oppor- 


THE  EETIEED  FAEMER  247 

tunity?  It  will  never  be  done  under  a  one  year 
tenancy.  Is  it  not  an  opportune  time  for  the  land- 
lords and  tenants  of  our  land  to  get  together  and 
wake  up  to  their  possibilities. 

The  excuse  of  the  owners  of  these  farms  for  the 
criminal  desertion  of  their  farms  is  that  they  wish 
to  escape  the  drudgery  of  the  farm,  or  they  are 
seeking  educational  advantages  for  their  children, 
all  of  which  are  nonsensical,  untrue,  and  not 
worthy  the  name  of  an  excuse.  The  same  money 
expended  to  plant  themselves  in  the  city  or  village 
would  build  and  equip  the  most  modern  and  attrac- 
tive buildings,  equipped  with  every  labor  saving 
device  and  comfort  known  to  any  city  home.  Sys- 
tems of  water  works,  lighting  and  heating  are  now 
accessible  to  every  farm  home  as  cheap,  substan- 
tial and  serviceable  as  can  be  installed  in  any  city 
or  village  home.  The  perfected  phonograph  and 
musical  and  other  devices  for  amusement  are 
possible  upon  the  farm. 

The  automobile,  trolly  lines  and  railroads,  and 
other  facilities  to  obtain  an  education,  make  it 
possible  for  the  farm  boy  or  girl  to  obtain  an  edu- 
cation as  easily  as  the  city  boy  or  girl,  and  there  is 
no  need  for  the  farmer  to  move  to  city  or  town 
to  give  his  children  these  educational  facilities. 
And  by  remaining  on  the  farm  he  escapes  the  most 
serious  and  disastrous  things  that  can  befall  the 
young  boy  or  girl, — idleness  and  the  false  view  and 
notion  that  we  are  in  this  world  for  the  pleasure 
we  may  get  out  of  it.  If  the  farmer  remains  on 
the  farm  and  sends  his  boys  and  girls  to  the  city 
school  that  provides  for  agricultural  and  domestic 
science  training,  they  return  during  vacations  and 


248       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

find  work  to  do  that  aids  in  the  building  of  their 
characters,  and  fits  them  for  the  active  duties  of 
life  and  good  citizenship.  Whereas,  if  they  live  in 
the  city  or  village,  their  vacations  are  spent  in 
idleness  that  so  unfits  the  boy  and  girl  for  the 
serious  duties  of  life. 

If,  then,  the  farmer  can  secure  upon  the  farm  the 
enjoyments  and  privileges  that  can  be  obtained  in 
the  city,  why  should  he  bring  himself  within  the 
other  environments  of  the  city  that  are  pernicious 
to  himself  and  family? 

For  a  half  century  the  author  has  lived  in  close 
contact  with  the  farmers  of  the  rich  corn  belt  of 
Indiana.  For  years  he  was  the  legal  adviser  for 
hundreds  of  these  farmers.  He  mingled  with 
them  and  their  families,  even  in  their  homes.  He 
has  talked  to  them  as  a  public  speaker  in  their 
school  houses,  churches  and  public  halls,  discussing 
politics,  temperance,  and  farm  problems.  And  he 
has  ever  been  a  close  observer  of  their  class.  Let- 
ting his  memory  go  back  over  these  years  of  ac- 
tivity and  intermingling,  he  recalls  scores  of 
farmers  who  moved  from  the  farm  to  the  city 
either  as  office  holders,  or  seekers  of  better  busi- 
ness and  educational  opportunities,  and  peaceful 
retirement,  and  nearly  every  single  one  of  them 
made  the  greatest  mistake  of  their  lives. 

He  has  seen  active  men  with  industrious,  inter- 
esting wives  and  children,  live  forces  in  the  farm 
communities  in  which  they  resided,  and  living  un- 
der conditions  that  ought  to  have  contributed  con- 
tentment, happiness  and  plenty,  who  began  to 
dream  of  office  holding  and  city  merchant's  lives, 
and  came  to  the  city  to  realize  them. 


THE  RETIEED  FARMER  249 

While  the  dreaming  of  dreams  has  led  to  great 
achievements  and  successes,  yet  it  has  too  often 
led  into  the  direction  of  failure  and  disaster. 

Joseph,  wisest  statesman  of  any  age,  dreamed 
the  dreams  that  led  him  to  the  throne  of  Egypt, 
where  his  wise  methods  of  action  saved  the  Egyp- 
tian and  his  own  people  from  the  ravages  of  fam- 
ine. Aaron  Burr  was  also  a  dreamer  of  dreams, 
but  his  dreaming  led  him  to  the  heights  of 
sovereign  power  and  dignity  in  our  nation,  where 
his  methods  of  action  made  him  to  become  the  most 
despised  statesman  of  our  history. 

The  lives  of  these  men  have  been  exemplified  in 
the  lives  of  thousands  of  men  of  smaller  caliber  who 
have  dreamed  dreams  and  sought  their  accomplish- 
ment. Some  made  good,  the  great  majority  failed. 
Those  farmer  dreamers  observed  by  the  author 
came  to  the  city,  as  county  office  holders,  or  became 
city  merchants.  They  found  themselves  under 
different  environments.  Their  habits  of  life  were 
entirely  changed  which  called  for  a  greater  ex- 
penditure of  money  than  that  to  which  they  had 
been  accustomed.  They  were  exposed  to  tempta- 
tions to  which  they  had  never  been  subjected  be- 
fore. They  and  their  families  became  impreg- 
nated with  false  notions  of  life  and  living.  Upon 
the  farm  opportunities  for  work  were  ever  present, 
which  built  up  their  better  natures  and  made  them 
what  God  designed  they  should  be.  The  city  life 
destroyed  their  opportunity  for  work  and  the  curse 
that  follows,  idleness,  fell  to  their  lot. 

When  the  terms  of  office  of  these  men  expired 
they  and  their  families  found  themselves  so  tightly 
bound  with  the  cords  of  city  environment  that 


250       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

they  resented  any  proposal  to  move  back  to  the 
farm,  and  these  men  were  persuaded  to  embark 
into  some  city  business  for  which  they  had  no 
adaptation  or  training,  and  so  it  was  but  a  short 
time  until  they  made  miserable  failures  and  their 
property  was  swept  away  and  for  ever  afterwards 
they  were  as  derelicts  upon  life's  sea.  And  of  the 
few  who  at  the  expiration  of  their  term  of  office 
did  go  back  to  the  old  farm  home,  it  was  with  a  dis- 
contented and  dissatisfied  spirit  which  so  hung 
about  them  that  it  prevented  them  from  getting 
properly  back  into  country  life  again. 

The  effects  of  city  environments  caused  the 
women  and  children  of  these  men  to  so  act  towards 
their  old  neighbors  and  friends  as  to  stir  up  ani- 
mosity and  strife.  The  men  themselves,  had,  too, 
fallen  under  the  effect  of  city  environment  that 
leads  to  speculation,  were  no  longer  content  to  de- 
vote their  entire  attention  to  the  business  of  farm- 
ing, so  they  engaged  in  contracting  for  the  doing 
of  public  work,  stock  buying,  or  some  work  for  the 
doing  of  which  they  had  no  training  or  experience. 
Their  farms  and  the  business  of  farming  were 
neglected  and  they  too  in  time  found  their  property 
swept  away  and  the  remainder  of  their  lives  were 
bound  with  misery. 

The  men  who  did  not  come  to  the  city  as  office 
holders,  but  to  engage  in  a  city  business  for  which 
they  had  no  adaptation  or  training,  also,  as  well 
as  their  families,  fell  under  the  spell  of  the  city's 
environments  and  temptations,  their  lives  and 
business  became  failures  and  their  property  too 
was  swept  away. 

The  author  has  seen  numbers  of  farmers  who 


THE  EETIEED  FAEMER  251 

canglit  the  fever  of  ** retiring  from  the  farm." 
God  pity  the  farmer  that  comes  under  the  spell  of 
this  insidious  farm  disease. 

After  years  of  living  upon  the  farm  home  which 
should  have  in  those  years  been  transformed  into 
such  a  haven  of  rest  that  no  temptation  on  earth 
could  compel  him  to  leave  it,  the  farmer  suddenly 
discovers  he  is  working  too  hard,  or  that  the  place 
is  not  large  enough  for  himself  and  the  boys,  and 
he  begins  to  dream  of  the  ease  and  peace  of  a  re- 
tired city  or  town  life.  Part  of  the  dream  becomes 
a  reality.  The  life-long  associations  of  the  old 
farm  home  are  left  behind  and  he  and  his  good 
wife  and  younger  children  settle  down  amid  new 
environments,  only  to  find  within  a  short  time  that 
they  cannot  shake  off  the  old  environment  for  the 
new.  In  the  majority  of  cases  it  is  found  that 
city  and  town  expenses  exceed  their  incomes  and 
in  their  attempt  to  adjust  incomes  to  meet  ex- 
penses, they  resist  and  kick  against  every  improve- 
ment inaugurated,  and  appeals  made  for  charity 
or  religious  purposes. 

The  author  recalls  one  retired  farmer  who  when 
he  lived  upon  the  farm  was  a  devout  Christian,  the 
leader  of  the  church  and  Sunday  school  of  his  com- 
munity, and  never  missed  a  religious  service. 
When  he  retired  to  the  city  he  transferred  his 
church  membership  to  the  city  church  and  enrolled 
himself  with  the  men's  bible  class  in  the  Sunday 
school.  All  the  members  of  the  class  had  pledged 
themselves  to  contribute  ten  cents  per  Sunday. 
Eather  than  pay  ten  cents  per  Sunday  this  man 
quit  going  to  the  Sunday  school.  He  was  com- 
pelled to  save  every  possible  cent  that  he  might  live 


252       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

within  his  limited  income.  It  is  needless  to  say- 
that  he  developed  into  a  kicker,  and  kicked  against 
every  movement  of  the  church  or  his  city  that 
called  for  the  expenditure  of  moiiey.  Had  he  re- 
mained on  the  farm  he  would  have  still  enjoyed  his 
church  privileges  and  been  a  power  for  good  in 
the  farm  community,  lived  a  peaceful  life,  spared 
himself  much  humiliation,  and  the  town  community 
would  have  avoided  his  irritable  presence. 

The  author  has  seen  old  people  retire  from  the 
farm  to  the  city,  who,  on  the  farm  had  been  sur- 
rounded with  life-long,  kind,  and  sympathetic 
friends  and  neighbors  who  were  their  close 
daily  companions.  City  people  are  divided  into 
clannish,  narrow  circles  too  often  bent  on  society  *s 
doings  and  pleasures.  The  women  of  the  thriftier 
class  are  caught  in  the  maddening  rush  of  parties, 
entertainments  and  receptions,  and  those  of  the 
middle  or  poorer  class  are  caught  in  the  grind  of 
respectable  and  abject  poverty.  City  men  gener- 
ally must  be  madly  engrossed  in  the  business  or 
work  in  order  to  maintain  their  positions  or  even 
to  live.  Such  a  body  of  engrossed  men  and  women 
are  not  likely  to  take  on  new  acquaintances  or 
associations,  and  they  merely  politely  notice  the 
retired  farmer  or  his  family,  so  he  finds  himself 
** midst  the  crowd,  the  hum,  the  shock  of  men.'* 
*He  sees,  hears  and  feels,  but  he  cannot  possess.' 
He  roams  about  the  city's  street  with  *none  to 
bless  him  or  none  whom  he  can  bless,'  with  kind 
and  good  companionship — the  awfulness  of  soli- 
tude midst  the  crowd  that  throng  him  becomes  his 
lot.    Upon  the  farm  he  had  the  consolation  of 


THE  EETIEED  FAEMER  253 

friends,  the  health  and  pleasure  giving  work  that 
is  not  to  be  found  in  the  new  city  home. 

Go  into  any  city  or  town  in  the  fore  part  of 
spring,  summer  or  autumn  days,  and  you  will  see 
these  retired  farmers  in  their  buggies  heading  to- 
wards their  farms  to  spend  the  day.  The  look 
upon  their  faces  too  plainly  bespeaks  their  un- 
happiness,  and  that  they  feel  they  are  not  needed 
in  the  city.  Nor  are  they  needed  there,  because 
they  cannot  assimilate  with  the  city's  life  and  ac- 
tivity. Cities  and  towns  need  young,  active,  enter- 
prising and  constructive  men.  The  country  needs 
the  experience,  advice  and  the  money  of  the  men 
who  would  retire  from  the  farm  to  the  city.  It  has 
been  well  said  that  *^a  retired  farmer  is  capital 
going  to  waste.'' 

And  yet  there  is  a  pathetic  side  to  this  question 
that  appeals  to  us.  Too  often  none  but  the  old 
folks  remain  on  the  farm.  The  children  are  gone 
and  the  father  and  mother  sit  in  the  old  farm  home 
lonely  in  life's  decline.  Though  surrounded  with 
plenty  and  to  spare,  yet  they  look  out  through 
misty  eyes  into  ^^the  orchard  where  the  children 
used  to  play,"  and  their  ^' old  hearts  seem  so  empty 
every  way"  as  they  dream  and  dream  of  their 
happiest  days  when  their  children  were  young  and 
were  all  in  the  old  home  nest.  But  it  is  even 
better  to  sit  in  lonesomeness  and  dream  your  lives 
away  with  your  old  friends,  mid  the  scenes  of  your 
tenderest  associations  than  to  add  to  your  heart- 
aches the  misery  of  the  lonesomeness  and  solitude 
you  surely  will  find  in  a  new  home  in  city  or  town. 

Many  retired  farmers  say  they  want  to  go  to 


254       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

town  to  rest,  forgetting  the  fact  that  true  rest  can 
never  be  found  in  idleness.  It  is  only  found  in 
activity  that  leads  out  the  mind  in  thought.  The 
farmer,  if  he  sticks  in  town,  loses  that  interest  in 
the  farm  that  leads  to  experimenting,  and  in  the 
study  of  new  methods,  and  so  the  farm  is  neglected. 
He  wanders  about  the  streets  in  idleness  and  seeks 
the  company  of  idle  men.  You  will  find  him  on  the 
street  corners,  in  stores  or  where  idle  men  congre- 
gate, discoursing  problems  of  state,  national  and 
local  government,  and  nine  times  out  of  ten  these 
discussions  partake  of  the  nature  of  opposition 
or  a  kick.  He  neither  constructs  nor  buildeth 
himself,  and  wants  no  one  else  to  construct  or 
build. 

The  death  rate  among  retired  farmers  is  larger 
and  there  is  a  reason  for  this.  A  man  who  has 
been  an  active  worker  all  his  life  is  generally  a 
heavy  eater,  for  he  must  needs  be  in  order  that  his 
body  be  kept  in  condition  for  the  best  service. 
When  he  becomes  an  idle  man,  and  most  all  retired 
farmers  do  become  idle  men  when  they  move  to  the 
city  or  town,  he  does  not  generally  change  his 
habits  of  eating.  Idleness  and  over  eating,  espe- 
cially in  elderly  people,  make  a  combination  that 
soon  brings  on  disease  and  death. 

To  the  farmer  who  is  about  to  retire  from  the 
farm  we  say  *  *  Don 't. ' '  Eetire  on  the  farm.  Take 
the  money  that  is  required  to  establish  yourself  in 
the  city  or  town,  and  build  a  house  for  your  tenant. 
Install  in  your  old  home  every  modern  device  that 
brings  comfort  and  lessens  toil.  Fix  up  the  old 
home  surroundings  with  flowers,  trees  and  shrubs. 
Touch  up  the  old  orchard  with  trimming,  spraying 


THE  EBTIEED  FARMEE  255 

and  fertilization.  All  this  will  keep  you  bnsy  and 
give  you  work  worth  while,  and  work  that  will  not 
only  prolong  and  make  happy  your  life,  but  will  be 
an  uplift  to  your  family,  your  neighbor,  and  to 
your  fellowmen.  You  will  be  keeping  in  touch 
with  the  farm  and  will  get  in  the  right  mental  state 
towards  your  soil  that  will  lead  you  to  increase  its 
fertility.  Gather  around  you  the  best  farm  litera- 
ture, keep  active  with  all  the  organizations  of 
church  and  the  like  that  promote  the  betterment  of 
farm  life  and  society.  If  in  the  doing  of  all  these 
things  your  life  becomes  insipid  and  you  begin  to 
dream  of  city  life  again,  take  on  some  fad  like  pro- 
ducing and  perfecting  a  special  breed  of  stock, 
chickens,  seed  com,  fruit  or  the  like,  and  work  at  it 
until  it  interests  your  every  moment.  It  will  not 
only  amuse  and  interest  you,  but  will  result  in 
profit,  and  keep  you  from  rusting  out,  and  above 
all,  will  keep  you  on  the  farm  and  keep  you  from 
the  heartaches  you  surely  will  find  if  you  flee  to 
city  life. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

BELATION    OF   EELIGION   TO   FAEM   LIFE 

THE  cynical  non-religious  reader  will  not  be 
able  to  see  wherein  religion  has  much  to  do 
with  the  business  of  farming.  But  if  he  will  con- 
sider he  will  find  that  it  has  much  to  do  with  it. 
Everything  that  breeds  content  with  one's  station 
should  be  courted  and  won  and  be  made  a  part  of 
us. 

Life  at  its  best  is  full  of  sorrow,  discontent  and 
a  restlessness  that  seeks  for  a  happiness  which  is 
seldom  if  ever  found.  That  restlessness  which 
leads  us  to  put  forth  the  effort  to  so  improve  our 
surroundings  that  toil  will  be  lessened  and  effi- 
ciency be  promoted,  or  will  make  better  husbands 
and  wives  and  children,  citizens  or  neighbors,  is 
to  be  encouraged ;  but  the  restlessness  which  seeks 
pleasures  that  never  please,  but  make  us  worth 
less  for  having  enjoyed  them,  should  be  frowned 
upon  and  discouraged.  Therefore  anything  that 
will  bring  to  our  hearts  peace  and  contentment  and 
leads  us  into  paths  of  usefulness,  should  be  en- 
couraged in  every  way. 

The  religious  faith  of  our  fathers,  fought  for 
through  dungeon,  fire  and  blood,  founded  upon  the 
simple  life  and  teachings  of  the  Christ,  has  been 
the  living  faith  that  has  touched  the  hearts  of  noble 
men  and  women,  bringing  peace  and  joy  to  their 

256 


"THE   FRUIT   OF  VINE   AND   TREE   AND   OF   VARIED 

HUE." 

Fruit  of  many  kinds  is  possible  for  every  farm,  no  matter 
where  situated.  And  there  is  nothing  produced  upon  the  farm 
^yhich  adds  more  to  the  health,  good  cheer  and  pleasures  of  farm 
life  than  an  abundance  of  varied  fruits. 


EELIGION  AND  FAEM  LIFE         257 

souls,  removing  the  burdens  of  sorrow,  brighten- 
ing life's  journey,  and  making  earthly  existence 
worth  while. 

The  author  has  never  possessed  an  over  abun- 
dance of  this  peace  giving  religion,  but  an  exten- 
sive observation  has  led  him  to  the  sure  conclusion 
that  this  simple  religious  faith  makes  not  only  bet- 
ter men  and  women,  but  puts  into  their  hearts  that 
spirit  of  peacefulness  and  contentment  that  makes 
them  proud  of  their  station  in  life,  shows  them  the 
golden  opportunities  lying  at  their  very  doors,  and 
causes  them  to  strive  only  for  the  better  things  of 
life ;  to  dream  the  dreams  of  usefulness  and  not  of 
folly  and  unsatisfying  pleasures. 

It  is  universally  conceded  that  no  city  commu- 
nity would  be  a  safe  place  in  which  to  live  if 
churches  and  church  privileges  were  wiped  out. 
The  church  is  the  safety  valve  of  every  community. 

A  farm  community  prospers  in  proportion  as  its 
churches  prosper.  This  has  ever  been  true,  and 
will  so  continue.  Therefore  any  farmer  who  has 
the  best  interests  of  his  family  at  heart,  must  con- 
tribute and  aid  in  maintaining  the  best  and  most 
active  church  life  in  his  midst. 

Our  ancestors  fled  from  the  religious  oppression 
of  the  old  world,  endured  the  hardships  of  the 
early  ocean  voyages,  came  to  the  bleak,  barren,  un- 
hospitable  shores  of  the  new  country,  and  amidst 
discouragements  and  hindrances,  which  only  the 
religion  of  the  Christ  could  help  them  to  endure, 
forged  out  a  civilization,  founded  upon  a  puritani- 
cal religion,  which  has  given  us  the  spirit  of 
thanksgiving  and  the  sturdy  manhood  upon  which 
has  been  builded  much  of  the  greatness  of  this 


258       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

country  of  ours.  Our  fathers  realized  that  the 
youth  educated  without  the  training  of  the  church 
was  like  a  rudderless  ship  upon  life's  sea,  where 
he  became  an  easy  prey  to  temptation  and  easily 
succumbed  to  vice  and  immorality  which  abound 
in  plenty  in  the  weak  church  community. 

George  Frederick  Wells  has  well  said,  *^The 
American  farmer  was  at  one  time  preeminently  re- 
ligious. Whether  he  lived  as  the  child  of  the  Puri- 
tan theocracy  or  as  the  patron  of  early  Virginian 
aristocracy,  he  tilled  the  soil  in  order  that  he  might 
worship  God  and  rear  his  children  in  the  fear  of 
the  Lord.  Whether  he  cleared  the  forest  under 
Penn,  the  patriarch  of  piety,  or  planted  his  wind- 
mills by  the  steeples  of  New  Amsterdam,  his  fire- 
side was  his  synagogue  and  his  temple  the  house 
of  prayer. ' ' 

And  so  we  might  add  that  the  children  of  this 
American  farmer  went  out  from  the  old  homestead 
hallowed  by  a  Christian  association  that  followed 
them  to  the  city,  and  that  led  them  to  found  the 
city  church  that  made  the  cities  a  safe  place  in 
which  to  live,  and  extended  the  missionary  spirit 
that  is  evangelizing  the  world. 

This  preeminent  religious  faith  of  the  early 
American  farmer  gave  to  his  children  an  inherit- 
ance more  valuable  than  the  other  education  he 
gave  them,  or  the  dollars  he  left  for  their  inherit- 
ance. It  gave  them  that  sturdiness  of  character 
essential  for  the  enjoying  of  the  higher  and  better 
life. 

You  cannot  truthfully  say  that  any  of  these  chil- 
dren when  they  had  left  the  old  home  nest  forgot 
the  religious  training  of  the  old  home.    Some  of 


EELIGION  AND  FAEM  LIFE         259 

the  weaker  ones  by  reason  of  their  lack  of  strength 
may  have  fallen  victims  to  temptation,  yet  in  the 
darkest  hour  of  their  lives,  they  never  forgot  the 
religious  life  of  the  old  home  fireside  or  the  simple 
religious  faith  of  father  and  mother.  And  this 
religious  faith  was  the  shield  that  protected  the 
stronger  children  from  the  temptations  and  vices 
of  life. 

There  was  a  time  upon  the  farm  when  almost  the 
whole  community  attended  church  services.  In 
most  farm  communities  the  majority  attend  now, 
and  yet  in  many  communities  the  rural  church  has 
gone  into  decay. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  enter  into  a  discussion 
of  the  cause  of  the  decay  of  the  country  church. 
Our  purpose  is  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  live 
spiritual  practicable  church  is  needed  upon  the 
farm,  located  where  it  is  most  practicable  to  reach 
every  one  engaged  in  the  business  of  farming. 
Every  tiller  of  the  soil  to  get  the  best  out  of  life 
for  himself  and  family  must  *^find  the  home  of  his 
higher  life  in  a  living  church." 

We  sometimes  fear  that  we  are  devoting  too 
much  time  to  the  promulgation  of  the  foreign 
missionary  spirit  to  the  neglect  of  the  rural 
church.  Is  it  not  better  to  first  give  us  the  strong 
church  in  every  farm  and  city  community  and 
then  let  the  light  of  the  church  extend  out  and 
beyond ! 

If  sectarianism  has  been  one  of  the  chief  causes 
of  the  decadence  of  the  country  church,  then  the 
sooner  sectarianism  is  eliminated,  the  better.  It 
is  the  simple  religion  of  the  Christ  teaching  the 
Golden  Rule  and  the  brotherhood  of  man,  that 


260       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

is  needed.  The  dogmatic  doctrine  of  a  dogmatic 
church  should  have  no  place  in  any  community. 

The  great  movement  now  being  put  forth  to  up- 
lift the  business  of  farming  will  be  a  failure  if  it 
fails  to  include  in  its  panacea  for  the  uplift  of  the 
business,  a  genuine  religion  for  the  farm.  But  it 
is  up  to  the  farmer  to  provide  these  means  by 
which  this  religion  can  be  secured,  and  he  will  do  it 
if  he  can  be  made  to  see  the  need  of  it  to  himself 
and  to  his  family.  He  must  be  made  to  see,  how- 
ever, just  as  the  city  church  must  be  made  to  see, 
that  the  church  must  be  a  place  where  the  social 
side  of  life  must  be  properly  developed,  and  that 
the  problems  of  his  business  are  as  sacred  as  re- 
ligious topics  and  that  there  is  no  harm  in  dis- 
cussing them  in  the  church  at  opportune  times. 

The  country  church  should  be  the  social  and 
educational  as  well  as  the  religious  center  of  every 
farm  community. 

We  hear  it  so  frequently  said  that  the  country 
church  decays  in  proportion  as  the  number  of  farm 
tenants  increase.  If  this  be  true  it  is  indeed  a 
sad  sitate  of  affairs.  Is  there  a  reason  why  the 
church  should  not  appeal  to  a  tenant  and  his 
family?  Is  he  any  less  a  human  being  because  he 
is  not  a  land  owner?  He  and  his  family  are  sub- 
ject to  the  same  laws  of  life  and  being.  He  cer- 
tainly needs  the  consolation,  the  uplift  and  the 
peace  of  the  simple  church  religion,  and  if  the 
tenant  and  his  family  get  the  notion  that  they  do 
not  need  this  religion,  they  have  gotten  the  false 
view  of  life.  If  the  tenant  and  his  family  will  but 
faithfully  practice  the  religion  of  the  country 
church  they  will  become  better  tenants  and  better 


EELIGION  AND  FAEM  LIFE         261 

citizens  of  their  farm  community  which  will  surely 
bring  to  them  the  prosperity  that  will  lead  them 
to  land  ownership. 

The  church  is  a  leveler  of  classes.  If  a  different 
notion  prevails  it  is  not  the  fault  of  the  church,  hut 
of  men.  To  get  the  best  out  of  the  business  of 
farming  one  must  get  in  the  proper  mental  state 
towards  his  wife,  his  family,  his  stock,  his  farm 
and  his  soil.  He  must  take  pride  in  his  home,  its 
furnishings  and  surroundings,  and  his  entire  farm 
with  all  its  belongings.  He  will  do  these  things 
if  he  makes  religion  a  part  of  his  farm  life. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE    COUNTRY   GRAVEYARD 

A  STRANGE  and  gruesome  title  for  a  chapter 
in  a  book  upon  the  business  of  farming, 
most  readers  will  think  or  exclaim  when  their  eyes 
rest  upon  it,  and  yet  the  author  believes  that  the 
reader  will  reach  the  conclusion  ere  he  finishes 
reading  this  chapter,  that  the  country  graveyard 
has  as  much  of  a  place  in  the  business  of  farming 
as  has  the  beautiful  surrounding  or  sanitation  of 
the  farm. 

We  should  remember  the  beautiful  sentiment  ex- 
pressed in  the  words,  **We  pass  this  way  but 
once,"  and  so  it  is  our  duty  to  do  everything 
possible  to  lighten  the  burdens  of  our  loved  ones 
and  our  fellow  man. 

Pleasant  and  pleasing  surroundings  make  life 
worth  while,  cultivates  a  respect  for  society  and 
its  laws,  instills  into  our  hearts  that  there  is  a 
Maker  who  rules  the  universe,  shapes  our  destinies 
and  our  ends. 

Cities  are  crowded  because  they  are  made  beau- 
tiful. Broad,  well  paved  and  lighted  streets, 
parks  and  cemeteries  with  the  wilds  of  Nature  im- 
proved, aided  and  polished  by  the  hand  of  man, 
are  an  everlasting  delight  to  the  eye  and  a  balm 
to  our  tired  and  hurt  minds.  So  people  love  them 
and  are  willing  to  undergo  any  hardship  to  be  close 
to  them. 

262 


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THE  COUNTRY  GRAVEYARD        263 

Though  bowed  with  cruel  grief,  yet  is  there  not 
a  pleasure  in  being  able  to  lay  our  loved  ones  who 
have  lived  out  life's  fitful  dream  in  the  beautiful, 
well  kept,  flower  laden  cemetery,  with  the  knowl- 
edge that,  through  the  years,  though  we  be  far 
away,  it  will  always  be  well  cared  forf 

Oh !  the  tragedy  and  the  sadness  of  the  country 
graveyard!  A  disgrace  to  the  American  farmer 
that  ought  to  make  him  blush  with  shame. 

There  is  not  a  farm  community  in  all  this  broad 
land  of  ours  but  what  contains  this  disgrace.  We 
see  these  yards  grown  up  with  weeds  and  under- 
brush until  we  can  scarcely  see  through  them  to 
the  tottering  tombstone,  upon  which  is  inscribed, 
** Sacred  to  the  Memory,"  a  mockery  to  the  dead, 
a  stinging  disgrace  to  the  living.  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  men  and  women  fear  death,  knowing  that 
their  bodies  are  to  be  laid  in  such  neglected 
places  ? 

The  author's  parents  are  sleeping  in  a  beautiful 
city  cemetery,  although  they  were  pioneers  and 
hved  their  lives  upon  the  farm.  A  brother  and 
sister  died  more  than  a  half  century  ago,  and  were 
laid  in  a  neglected  country  churchyard.  They  died 
in  early  pioneer  days  when  our  parents  were  busy 
clearing  the  forests  and  making  the  wilderness  to 
bloom  and  fruit  with  the  products  of  the  husband- 
man. The  struggle  our  pioneers  were  compelled 
to  undergo  led  to  neglect  in  many  of  the  things  of 
life.  So  it  is  not  strange  that  the  graveyard  was 
neglected.  When  the  last  parent  died  the  author 
went  back  to  the  ancestral  home  from  which  he 
had  wandered  years  before.  Those  are  the  times 
when  family  ties  are  strengthened  and  family 


264       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

memories  are  revived.  So  the  thought  of  the 
loved  ones  gone  before  became  uppermost  in  the 
minds  of  the  living  and  they  thought  it  would  be 
fitting  to  wander  back  to  the  old  country  grave- 
yard where  the  brother  and  sister  slept,  and  have 
their  remains  moved  to  the  beautiful  city  cemetery 
where  our  parents  were  laid  to  rest. 

But  what  was  the  author's  sorrow  to  be  brought 
face  to  face  with  the  awful  truth  that  in  this 
neglected  country  graveyard  we  could  not  even 
find  the  depression  of  the  narrow  short  mounds  un- 
der which  had  lain  for  so  many  years  the  sleep- 
ing bodies  of  those  who  helped  make  up  the  family 
circle  of  our  youth,  that  period  the  best  of  our 
lives. 

Not  many  miles  from  the  author's  home  is  a 
farm  that  was  rescued  from  the  wilderness  by  a 
pioneer  who  raised  a  large  family.  He  and  his 
wife,  several  of  his  children  and  a  few  other  rela- 
tives, were  laid  to  rest  in  a  lonely  spot  upon  the 
farm.  In  the  course  of  years  the  farm  passed  into 
the  hands  of  strangers.  In  passing  this  farm  not 
long  since  the  author  saw  the  tombstones  of  the 
little  family  cemetery  piled  around  the  last  remain- 
ing tree  of  the  forests  of  pioneer  days  upon  the 
farm,  and  the  mounds  covering  the  sleeping  bodies 
of  the  pioneers  had  been  leveled  and  turned  into 
a  part  of  the  adjoining  field,  and  was  being  cul- 
tivated. What  sacrilege!  What  a  thoughtless- 
ness of  the  living  for  the  dead !  It  is  no  wonder 
that  a  farm  community,  dotted  with  ill  kept,  un- 
interesting homes,  dilapidated,  neglected  grave- 
yards, are  deserted  by  the  young  girls  and  boys. 

If  we  have  no  respect  for,  or  remembrance  of 


THE  COUNTEY  GRAVEYARD   265 

the  dead,  let  us  at  least  respect  ourselves  and 
make  our  lives  and  the  lives  of  our  loved  ones  more 
pleasant,  and  clean  up  and  beautify  the  country- 
graveyards  and  make  them,  not  only  a  fitting  place 
for  the  sleeping  dead,  but  places  that  delight  the 
eye.  It  will  greatly  assist  in  making  farm  life 
worth  while.  It  will  give  us  the  spirit  of  improve- 
ment of  home  surroundings  that  will  help  to  solve 
the  problem  of  keeping  the  girl  and  boy  on  the 
farm. 


CHAPTEE  XXIII 

HOME   BUILDING   AND    THE   FARM 

MAN  is  the  most  pronounced  home  loving  ani- 
mal, for  he  devotes  his  greatest  energy  to 
home  building  and  home  adornment.  If  possessed 
of  large  means  he  builds  for  his  home  palaces  and 
castles  **  domed  and  turreted''  and  surrounded  by 
spacious  grounds  gloriously  parked  by  Nature  and 
human  hands.  If  possessed  of  moderate  means 
he  builds  the  average  home,  pleasing,  pleasant  and 
of  modest  design.  If  his  means  be  meager  he  con- 
structs the  little  cottage  and  adorns  it  with  the 
clinging  vine,  the  simple  furnishings  and  surround- 
ings. In  either  home  he  finds  the  sacred  refuge 
of  life  from  the  storms  without.  In  the  palace  or 
most  pretentious  home  he  does  not  always  find  the 
abiding  place  of  true  affections  and  the  sacred 
refuge  of  rest.  Neither  does  he  always  find  them 
in  the  humble  cottage.  But  home  is  his  greatest 
solace  and  comfort.  He  gives  up  his  life  in  service 
for  it.  Take  home  out  of  man's  life  and  what  is 
left  for  which  it  is  worthy  to  fight  and  strive  and 
endure  1  The  young  man  and  woman  in  early  life 
begin  to  look  out  and  beyond  the  vision  of  their 
childhood's  home  for  their  future  home  vision,  and 
home  life,  and  if  they  catch  the  vision  of  home  it 
generally  is  the  vision  of  the  palace  or  more  pre- 

266 


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HOME  BUILDING  267 

tentious  home  witli  the  most  beautiful  surround- 
ings. If  their  childhood's  home  is  a  hovel  the 
vision  of  the  home  they  see  in  their  dreaming  is 
not  of  the  hovel  kind. 

While  we  have  seen  the  home  instinct  so  strongly 
developed  in  the  young,  that  a  young  man  seriously 
injured  in  the  marts  of  trade  piteously  pleaded 
that  we  take  him  to  his  childhood's  home  which 
we  found  to  be  nothing  but  a  two  roomed  hovel, 
reeking  with  filth  and  the  walls  alive  with  foul 
crawling  vermin  that  dropped  from  the  ceiling 
upon  us  as  our  footsteps  shook  this  hovel  mis- 
named home,  yet  we  dare  say  that  when  this 
young  man  dreamed  of  the  future  home,  he  would 
have  for  his  own,  his  dreaming  did  not  picture  the 
kind  of  a  home  his  parents  had  given  him,  but  was 
that  of  a  palace  or  the  beautiful  ones  he  saw  in 
his  neighborhood. 

One  day  at  the  World 's  Fair  at  Chicago  in  1893, 
the  author  found  himself  in  the  great  art  exhibit 
standing  with  a  large  crowd  gazing  with  moistened 
eyes  at  the  simple  picture  of  farm  life  entitled 
** Breaking  Home  Ties."  It  represented  a  farm 
home  scene  with  the  mother  bidding  adieu  to  the 
young  man  about  to  leave  the  farm.  The  father 
with  sad  face  was  waiting  with  the  farm  team  to 
take  him  away ;  the  smaller  brother  and  the  farm 
dog  were  looking  on  with  apparent  sorrow. 

After  standing  for  a  long  time  looking  through 
tears  at  this  simple  picture  he  turned  about  and 
saw  dozens  of  men  and  women  with  weeping  eyes 
and  with  tear  stained  cheeks  looking  at  the  picture 
as  the  author  had  looked.  Why  the  interest  and 
tears  for  a  simple  picture?    It  represented  the 


268       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

life's  history  of  the  author  and  those  men  and 
women. 

There  was  a  time  in  the  author's  life  when  he 
too  stood  on  the  old  farm  porch,  bid  mother  an 
affectionate  adieu,  and  with  her  blessing  and  ad- 
monition set  his  face  towards  the  city  and  entered 
its  life,  and  these  men  and  women  standing  about 
him  had  at  some  time  in  their  lives  done  the  same 
thing. 

But  why  did  the  author  break  the  home  ties  of  the 
old  farm  home?  He  had  caught  the  vision  of  a 
more  beautiful  home  with  better  and  more  pleas- 
ing surroundings  than  he  saw  upon  the  farm, 
which  he  wished  to  possess  for  his  manhood's 
home. 

Let  us  for  a  while  review  conditions  that  obtained 
upon  the  farm  during  the  early  life  of  the  author, 
and  which  have  obtained  in  the  lives  of  thousands 
of  others,  and  see  if  we  can  not  find  the  solution 
of  some  of  the  most  serious  problems  of  to-day 
that  beset  the  business  of  farming. 

Upon  the  farm  little  attention  was  paid  to  home 
building.  The  country  was  new,  farm  machinery 
was  crude  and  undeveloped,  muscle  and  brawn 
were  required  to  clear,  ditch,  cultivate  and  im- 
prove the  land.  Public  improvements  were  a  hard 
drain  upon  the  farmer's  finances.  Price  of  farm 
produce  was  low,  and  the  prices  of  the  merchandise 
the  farmer  required  was  high.  Conditions  were 
such  that  it  required  long  hours  of  hard  work  to 
make  ends  meet.  It  was  the  age  of  brawn  in  every 
business  as  the  age  of  improved  machinery  had 
not  been  born,  so  country  and  city  developed 


HOME  BUILDING  269 

slowly,  even  the  dress  of  those  engaged  in  the 
business  of  farming  was  so  distinctive  as  to  ex- 
cite ridicule. 

This  condition  of  the  business  of  farming  threw 
a  certain  environment  about  those  engaged  in  it 
that  they  continued  in  the  same  old  rut,  even  when 
conditions  changed  and  greater  opportunities  were 
possible  upon  the  farm. 

The  young  man  or  woman  reared  under  these 
environments,   without   any    education   that   led 
them  out  into  the  delights  and  possibilities  of  the 
business,  got  out  enough  into  the  world  to  see  that 
there  was  another  class  of  men  and  women  en- 
gaged in  different  business,  wearing  a  more  pleas- 
ing dress,  possessing  beautiful  looking  homes,  and 
apparent  prosperous  business ;  that  these  men  and 
women  were  leaders  of  men  and  women,  as  law- 
yers,  physicians,   clergymen,   merchant  princes, 
etc.    They  had  never  heard  the  merits  or  possi- 
bilities of  the  business  of  farming  exalted  either 
in  home,  school  or  elsewhere.    It  was  not  thought 
possible  for  those  on  the  farm  to  be  as  well  dressed 
as  people  in  other  lines  of  business,  and  so  the 
business  of  farming  was  generally  condemned  and 
looked  upon  with  ridicule  and  contempt.    Even 
the  literature  and  art  of  the  day  portrayed  and 
pictured  the  men,  women,  and  children  engaged  in 
the  business  of  farming  in  the  most  slurring  man- 
ner.    The  written  eloquence  of  the  great  lawyers 
and  statesmen  and  their  pictures  in  action,  was  the 
literature  and  art  found  in  both  schoolhouse  and 
home.    Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  young  man  upon 
the  farm  early  in  his  life  began  to  dream  of  the 


270       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

forum  or  the  legislative  halls,  and  longed  for  the 
day  when  he  would  be  a  great  lawyer  or  a  great 
stateman! 

The  business  that  pays  the  greatest  profit  and 
gives  the  greatest  opportunities  for  home  build- 
ing is  the  business  most  sought  after  by  our  peo- 
ple. In  every  line  of  business  the  people  who  are 
engaged  in  it  do  the  things  they  see  their  neigh- 
bors do  which  brings  the  greatest  profit. 

If  a  farmer  produces  a  certain  crop  one  year 
that  pays  large  returns,  all  his  neighbors  imitate 
him  the  next  season  and  raise  the  same  crop. 
Boys  and  girls  are  imitative.  They  want  to  imi- 
tate the  higher  types  of  men  and  women,  but  un- 
less rightly  guided  too  often  mistake  the  higher 
type.  They  want  to  do  what  men  and  women 
do  which  seems  to  them  will  bring  the  greatest 
joy  and  happiness.  If  when  they  go  to  a  city 
they  scarcely  look  at  the  hovel  or  poorer  districts 
where  poverty  abounds,  they  see  the  beautiful 
parked  streets  with  the  magnificent  residences 
richly  furnished  within  and  adorned  without. 
And  the  better  dressed  men  and  women  only 
impress  them,  and  they  immediately  begin  to 
dream  of  these  and  plan  to  engage  in  the  busi- 
ness that  will  make  such  things  possible  for  them 
to  acquire. 

As  the  author  was  penning  these  lines  his  atten- 
tion was  called  to  the  newspaper  report  of  a  large 
Sunday  men's  meeting  in  the  Capital  City  of  his 
state.  There  were  fifteen  hundred  men  at  this 
meeting.  The  speaker's  subject  was  the  *^ Coun- 
try Boy."  The  speaker  began  his  remarks  by 
asking  all  the  men  in  the  audience  who  were  reared 


HOME  BUILDING  271 

in  the  country  to  stand  up.  All  stood  up  but  less 
than  two  hundred. 

Line  up  the  city  business  and  professional  men 
of  any  of  our  cities  and  ask  them  from  whence  they 
came,  the  majority  will  say  from  the  farm.  Ask 
them  why  they  left  the  farm,  they  will  answer,  to 
secure  the  greater  opportunity.  Ask  them  if  this 
greater  opportunity  was  not  out  upon  the  farm, 
and  they  will  answer  that  if  it  was,  their  training 
and  education  had  obscured  it,  and  their  vision 
did  not  catch  it,  but  their  education  and  observa- 
tion pointed  it  out  to  them  in  the  city. 

The  author  obtained  his  early  education  in  a 
small  country  town  which  depended  entirely  upon 
the  country  for  its  support.  He  went  through  the 
several  grades  of  its  schools  and  graduated  from 
its  high  school.  There  never  was  a  time  in  all  his 
schooling  in  this  town,  depending  for  its  very  ex- 
istence upon  the  business  of  farming  surrounding 
it,  that  he  ever  heard  so  much  as  an  intimation  that 
the  business  of  farming  was  a  desirable  one  to 
follow. 

But  the  business  of  the  professions,  especially 
that  of  the  law,  were  being  constantly  held  up  as 
the  most  honorable  and  the  most  worthy  for  which 
the  young  man  should  aspire.  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  he  and  his  country  boy  associates  so  easily 
drifted  into  city  life?  On  his  way  to  school  he 
passed  the  pretentious  homes  of  the  city  editor, 
merchant,  lawyer  and  doctor,  and  dreamed  of  the 
time  when  he  too  might  be  an  editor,  a  merchant, 
lawyer  or  physician,  and  occupy  such  homes  which 
seemed  to  him  then  as  great  mansions. 

Those  were  the  days  of  bad  country  roads  and 


272       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

one-lialf  of  the  year  they  were  almost  impassable, 
and  as  farm  homes  were  generally  far  apart,  the 
isolation  of  country  life  was  keenly  felt. 

But  we  are  now  living  in  an  age  of  changed  con- 
ditions. Our  farm  lands  generally  are  so  settled 
up  that  farm  homes  dot  the  landscapes,  and  most 
every  farmer  can  stand  in  his  doorway  and  see 
many  homes.  Our  bad  roads  have  become  im- 
proved highways.  The  automobile  has  eliminated 
distance.  The  telephone  and  rural  mail  brings  the 
best  of  civilization  at  every  farm  fireside.  Dis- 
tance, isolation,  lonesomeness,  are  eliminated  from 
the  farm. 

We  have  already  shown  that  there  is  not  a  single 
city  convenience  but  what  is  available  for  the  farm. 

Electric  light,  practicable,  cheap  and  substan- 
tial, lights  the  farmer's  home,  eliminating  the 
drudgery  of  taking  care  of  dirty,  ill  smelling,  and 
unsatisfactory  coal  oil  lamps.  Devices  for  lifting 
and  distributing  water  about  the  farm  can  be  ob- 
tained which  do  the  work  as  cheaply  and  satisfac- 
torily as  any  city  water  system.  And  if  the 
farmer  but  possesses  a  spring  or  flowing  well,  as 
many  do,  the  hydraulic  ram  will  distribute  water 
about  his  premises  practically  free  of  cost.  The 
gasoline  engine,  now  so  cheap  that  any  farmer 
can  afford  one,  will  relieve  the  labor  of  pumping 
water  and  grinding  feed  for  stock,  and  do  a  large 
amount  of  other  farm  labor  that  once  required 
brawn  and  long  hours  of  labor  to  perform. 

An  outfit  consisting  of  a  vacuum  cleaner,  dust- 
less  mop,  fireless  cooker,  washing  machine  and 
wringer,  a  gasoline  engine  and  gasoline  iron,  all 
costing  less  than  one  hundred  dollars,  can  be  in- 


HOME  BUILDING  273 

stalled  in  the  farm  home  with  which  the  house  wife 
can  accomplish  twice  as  much  work  in  half  the 
time,  and  twice  as  easily  as  she  could  herself  do 
even  with  the  help  of  a  servant. 

With  such  an  outfit  the  farm  wife  can  keep  her 
household  in  perfect  order,  and  have  much  time 
to  use  as  her  fancy  dictates,  and  household  work 
upon  the  farm  becomes  no  more  irksome  than  it 
is  in  the  city  or  village. 

With  the  great  number  of  labor  saving  devices 
and  perfected  machinery  now  available  for  every 
farm,  and  at  such  prices  that  every  farmer  can 
afford  to  own  them,  the  farmer  and  his  family 
have  more  spare  time  than  ever  before  known  to 
the  farm,  so  they  can  spend  the  extra  time  in  the 
adornment  of  their  home  surroundings.  The 
beautifully  kept  lawn,  with  its  cement  walks,  well 
arranged  and  cared  for  shrubbery  and  flower 
beds,  is  just  as  possible  for  the  farmyard  as  the 
city  home.  The  country  garden  and  orchard,  well 
kept,  filled  with  every  vegetable  and  fruit  possible 
to  grow  in  the  locality  where  situated,  can  not  only 
be  made  a  source  of  profit,  but  an  everlasting  de- 
light to  the  senses  of  sight  and  taste. 

In  fine,  the  possibilities  for  home  building  upon 
the  farm  are  just  as  great,  and  at  prices  within 
the  reach  of  every  man  engaged  in  the  business, 
as  you  will  find  in  any  city  or  town.  There  is  no 
longer  any  excuse  to  go  to  town  to  possess  con- 
veniences or  escape  labor,  which  have  so  fre- 
quently been  urged  in  the  past  for  farm  desertion. 
And  just  as  sure  as  the  men  engaged  in  the  busi- 
ness of  farming  begin  to  put  these  possibilities 
into  realities  upon  the  farm,  see  that  the  educa- 


274       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

tional  institutions  to  which  they  send  their  chil- 
dren to  school  teach  them  those  things  that  get 
them  interested  in  nature  and  farm  life,  in  fine, 
give  them  the  agricultural  and  domestic  science 
training,  and  that  their  children  are  dressed  as 
well  as  finances  will  justify,  then  the  stream  of 
young  men  and  women  flowing  towards  the  city 
will  be  stayed. 

But  the  farmer  must  himself  get  the  spirit  of 
better  farming  done  under  better  conditions  of 
improved  labor  saving  devices  and  farm  machin- 
ery. He  must  get  in  love  with  his  soil  as  well  as 
with  his  family  and  do  the  things  that  will  feed  it 
and  improve  it,  and  then  get  in  touch  with  the 
better  farming  methods  by  which  he  can  grow  the 
better  and  larger  crops,  in  fine,  do  the  intensive 
farming  in  all  its  lines  that  brings  the  greater 
profit  and  the  better  farm  living. 

The  possibilities  of  home  building  and  the  op- 
portunities for  better  living  and  profit  were  never 
so  great  upon  the  farm  as  now.  Make  these  pos- 
sibilities and  opportunities  realities,  surround  the 
farm  homes  with  all  the  comforts  and  adornments 
of  the  city  home,  and  you  have  solved  the  ques- 
tion of  keeping  the  boy  and  girl  on  the  farm. 

Remember  that  it  does  not  require  the  mansion 
upon  the  farm  to  bring  the  better  living,  but  the 
modest,  simple  cottage  or  bungalow  surrounded 
with  the  adornments  of  beautiful  lawns  set  with 
shrubbery,  vine  and  well  kept  gardens  and  or- 
chards, and  furnished  inside  with  the  labor  saving 
devices  and  the  comforts  and  pleasures  of  good 
household  appointments,  libraries,  and  musical 
devices,  is  enough.     The  simplest  home  can  be  so 


HOME  BUILDING  275 

adorned  and  fumislied  as  to  give  the  greatest  de- 
lights of  living. 

But  above  all  do  not  forget  the  country  church, 
the  bettered  school  and  the  right  social  diversions. 
If  all  these  things  do  not  give  the  better  living  and 
greater  than  any  found  in  the  city,  then  there  is 
something  wrong  with  the  country  liver.  The  men 
or  women  themselves  are  not  right.  The  fleeting 
pleasures  of  the  world  have  so  poisoned  their 
minds  that  ** simple  pleasures  no  longer  please.'' 
**They  are  joined  to  idols"  and  we  are  forced  to 
let  them  alone,  at  least  until  by  bitter  experience 
they  have  been  made  to  see  their  folly. 

Some  may  ask  the  question,  *^If  the  farms  are 
all  occupied  with  homes,  where  is  there  room  for 
more?"  We  have  already  shown  in  the  chapter 
on  Back  to  the  Land  that  there  is  yet  much  room 
for  home  building,  and  there  is  still  the  greater 
opportunity  in  our  best  farming  districts  for  many 
farms  are  already  too  large.  Keduce  the  size  of 
our  farms  and  do  intensive  farming  of  our  lands 
which  will  bring  the  greater  profit.  The  farmer 
with  160  or  more  acres  can  divide  his  farm  into 
eighty  acre  tracts,  give  his  children  the  chance 
to  make  a  home  upon  it  which,  if  farmed  inten- 
sively, will  yield  as  great  a  profit  as  double  the 
acreage  found  by  the  old  methods.  This  method- 
will  make  room  for  many  of  the  children  coming 
on  into  adult  life. 

It  is  conceded  that  the  small  farm  yields  more 
to  the  acre  than  the  large  one.  That  the  farming 
of  small  tracts  of  land  leads  to  intensive  and  bet- 
ter farming  and  to  increased  fertility.  That  the 
small  farm  oocupied  by  industrious  families  is 


276       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

the  real  backbone  of  any  nation,  for  it  not  only 
reduces  farming  to  a  science,  but  leads  to  coopera- 
tion that  will  uplift  the  business  of  farming,  and 
will  lead  to  the  elimination  of  the  waste  long  prac- 
ticed upon  the  farm.  In  fine,  it  means  to  any 
nation  that  its  people  will  be  better  fed,  better 
clothed,  better  housed,  yea,  will  have  a  better  life. 

More  than  one  and  one-third  millions  of  immi- 
grants came  to  our  shores  in  the  year  1913,  and 
nearly  a  million  of  these  were  males.  Nearly  one- 
half  of  these  men  were  farmers  and  farm  laborers. 
Yet  less  than  two  per  cent,  of  these  landed  upon 
the  farm.  The  cities  swallowed  the  remainder 
and  augmented  their  congestion  of  city  workers. 
If  this  condition  continues  to  obtain  in  the  future, 
and  the  drifting  of  our  own  farming  class  con- 
tinues towards  the  city,  the  labor  and  other  prob- 
lems of  our  cities  and  country  districts  will  become 
so  acute  that  relief  must  be  obtained  in  some  way. 

The  duty  of  the  hour  is  to  demonstrate  that  the 
opportunity  of  the  farm  for  home  building  and 
better  living,  is  as  great  as  can  be  found  in  any 
city.  ^ 

It  is  useless  to  longer  sound  the  warnings  of  the 
dangers  that  beset  us.  It  is  now  time  for  action. 
There  must  be  some  concerted  action  by  and  be- 
tween national,  state  and  city  governments,  rail- 
roads, agricultural  or  other  societies,  towards  the 
putting  into  execution  of  some  plan  that  will  re- 
store the  equilibrium  of  proper  population  be- 
tween cities  and  farm  districts. 

We  will  never  be  able  to  keep  all  the  boys  and 
girls  upon  the  farm,  yet  if  we  show  them  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  farm  in  all  the  lines  of  profit,  home 


HOME  BUILDING  277 

building,  and  the  things  that  make  up  the  right 
living,  the  larger  number  will  not  only  remain 
upon  the  farm,  but  thousands  who  have  gone  to  the 
cities  will  return  to  the  farm. 

We  have  but  to  show  the  boys,  girls,  men  and 
women  what  the  farm  is  capable  of  doing  and  the 
readjustment  will  take  care  of  itself. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

BACK   TO   THE   LAND 

VOLUMES  have  been  written  upon  this  sub- 
ject. Some  true  and  sensible  things  have 
been  said  about  it,  but  much  that  has  been  written 
gives  no  practicable  suggestions. 

There  is  no  city  man  or  woman  who  came  from 
the  farm  but  what  has  a  yearning  to  *^  wander 
back  again"  to  the  land  to  be  touched  with  Na- 
ture's charms.  And  many  men  and  women  who 
never  knew  country  life  also  yearn  to  throw  off 
the  burden  of  city  life  for  the  freer  country  ex- 
istence. And  yet  but  a  small  per  cent,  of  this 
dreaming  ever  becomes  a  reality.  Many  who  once 
get  hold  of  city  or  town  existence  cannot  let  loose, 
and  the  probabilities  are  that  many  of  them  would 
make  a  failure  of  the  business  of  farming  if  they 
could  loosen  their  grip  on  city  life  and  get  back 
to  the  land. 

By  instinct  man  is  a  social  animal  and  is  ever 
seeking  to  be  amused.  He  dehghts  in  stimulation 
and  excitement,  in  the  weird,  the  mystery.  This 
trait  in  man  is  susceptible  to  cultivation  by  mental 
processes.  Let  his  mind  run  even  lightly  in  that 
direction  and  he  reaches  that  state  where  life  is 
as  a  dreary  waste,  unless  he  has  an  opportunity 
to  indulge  in  those  things  that  stimulate  and  ex- 
cite his  many  senses. 

278 


BACK  TO  THE  LAND  279 

It  seems  that  tlie  average  American  has  gone 
amusement  mad.  His  main  object  in  life  is  the 
insatiate  search  for  amusement.  When  a  man  or 
woman  allows  themselves  to  be  stricken  with  this 
malady,  the  peaceful  quiet  restful  life  of  the  farm 
has  no  power  over  them.  To  this  life  they  are 
irretrievably  lost. 

The  discontent  with  farm  life  can  in  most  every 
instance  be  traced  to  this  trait  of  man  and  accounts 
in  a  large  measure  for  the  breaking  of  farm  ties. 

The  isolation  and  lonesomeness  of  farm  life  in 
these  days  of  telephones,  rural  mail  routes,  the 
automobile  and  an  abundance  of  varied  literature, 
have  their  existence  only  in  the  mind,  and  so  can- 
not be  responsible  for  the  discontent  with  farm 
life.  We  do  not  have  to  go  to  the  remote  parts 
of  the  country  to  find  isolation  and  lonesomeness. 
They  are  found  in  the  most  acute  stage  in  the  best 
cities,  for  where  can  one  find  the  counterpart  to 
the  awful  isolation  and  lonesomeness  of  one  in  the 
city  without  friends  or  money,  or  without  work,  a 
business,  trade,  or  profession  with  which  to  supply 
the  necessaries  of  life.  Yet  there  are  thousands 
of  men  and  women  who  would  rather  live  in  the 
city,  endure  its  galling  poverty  and  distress,  so  as 
to  be  near  the  maddening  excitement  found  on  city 
streets,  rather  than  go  back  to  the  land  and  plenty, 
with  its  quiet  and  peaceful  rest  and  freedom  from 
worry. 

But  there  are  thousands  of  city  people  who 
ought  to  be  on  the  farm  and  who  want  to  be  for 
they  know  too  well  that  it  is  a  most  difficult  thing 
to  rear  and  train  children  properly  under  city  in- 
fluence and  environment,  for  no  matter  what  the 


280       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

home  training  may  be  the  outside  evil  influences 
found  on  every  hand  in  our  cities  tear  down  faster 
than  we  can  build  up.  Our  cities  are  so  congested 
with  workers  that  the  conditions  of  labor  are  such 
that  we  have  vast  hordes  of  the  underpaid,  and 
underfed,  and  even  where  labor  in  plenty  is  to  be 
obtained  it  is  done  under  conditions  that  too  often 
leads  to  overwork. 

The  high  cost  of  living  lays  its  galling  yoke  upon 
the  city  laboring  man  and  even  upon  the  middle 
merchant  or  business  and  professional  class,  and 
the  constant  chafing  of  the  yoke  makes  existence 
such  a  burden  that  even  hope  befriends  and  ceases 
to  be  the  chief  and  universal  cure  for  the  **ills  that 
men  endure." 

We  should  not  deceive  ourselves  in  the  belief 
that  all  the  misery  occasioned  by  the  **  heavy 
grind"  of  life  or  high  cost  of  living  in  the  city  is 
found  among  our  laboring  classes.  You  find  it 
largely  among  the  business  and  professional 
classes.  Most  of  us  never  know  the  awful  strug- 
gle for  bread  and  even  existence,  that  is  constantly 
taking  place  among  these  classes.  It  is  easily  seen 
among  the  laboring  class,  but  with  the  business  or 
professional  men  and  women  it  is  concealed  be- 
neath the  veneer  of  prosperity  with  which  this 
class  seem  to  be  able  to  cover  themselves  and  ap- 
pear to  the  world  as  prosperous.  But  we  who 
have  been  able  to  lift  this  veneer  have  seen  the 
conditions  that  would  startle,  and  show  that  the 
majority  of  city  people  are  paying  an  awful  pen- 
alty for  the  privilege  of  city  existence. 

When  we  see  the  gray  hairs,  the  wrinkled  fore- 


BACK  TO  THE  LAND  281 

head  and  the  sad  face  of  the  city  men  and  women 
it  too  often  means  that  they  are  bearing  the  heavy 
burdens  of  the  struggle  for  bread,  and  are  paying 
too  great  a  penalty  for  the  privilege  of  city  life. 
And  these  conditions  are  bound  to  grow  more 
acute  in  this  land  of  ours  because  we  have  almost 
reached  the  end  of  newer  lands  being  opened  for 
settlement,  and  our  lands  now  under  cultivation 
will  enhance  in  value  until  they  will  be  owned  by 
the  wealthier  class  and  so  the  man  without  means 
will  be  unable  to  obtain  land  and  will  be  forced  to 
endure  city  existence. 

Then  too  many  city  men  are  the  round  pegs  try- 
ing to  fit  themselves  into  the  square  holes. 
Nearly  half  the  men  who  are  trying  to  transact 
city  business  in  all  branches  of  trade  and  the  pro- 
fessions are  without  sufficient  ability  to  perform 
the  duties  their  business  requires.  The  author  has 
seen  scores  of  professional  men  who  could  not  suc- 
cessfully practice  their  professions  and  what  was 
more  distressing  would  never  be  able  to  learn  how 
to  do  so.  The  same  condition  obtains  in  all  lines 
of  city  business  and  we  are  willing  to  admit  that 
many  of  these  men  could  not  successfully  transact 
the  duties  required  of  the  business  of  farming  so 
as  to  be  successful.  This  fact  makes  it  harder  to 
advise  correctly  upon  the  **back  to  the  farm'' 
movement. 

Several  propositions  are  established.  There 
are  too  many  people  in  our  cities. 

There  are  too  many  city  people  in  distressed 
conditions.  The  burden  of  life  or  the  struggle  for 
bread  is  too  great  for  them  to  bear. 


282       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

If  these  city  people  could  get  back  to  the  land 
much  of  their  burdens  could  be,  and  would  be  re- 
lieved. 

To  establish  these  people  upon  the  land  does 
not  require  a  large  amount  of  land  for  each  in- 
dividual family. 

A  five  or  ten  acre  tract  of  land  farmed  and 
managed  in  the  proper  manner  would  provide  at 
the  closest  estimate  as  large  an  income  as  many 
of  those  families  have  been  receiving  in  the  cities, 
and  as  their  expenses  in  the  country  would  be  so 
greatly  curtailed  they  would  live  better  than  in 
the  city,  besides  enjoying  the  other  advantages  of 
country  life. 

There  are  fine  opportunities  for  money  making 
in  the  farming  of  small  tracts  of  land  near  most 
every  city.  The  rearing  of  poultry,  growing  of 
small  fruits  and  vegetables,  is  a  most  profitable 
business  and  does  not  require  large  tracts  of  land 
to  carry  it  on. 

There  is  much  land  in  the  eastern,  middle,  and 
southern  states,  susceptible  of  great  possibilities 
in  the  back  to  the  land  movement.  Many  city 
people  have  made,  and  are  now  making  good  on 
these  lands,  and  have  relieved  themselves  of  the 
city  grind,  and  now  endure  a  pleasing  existence. 
True  they  have  met  with  discouragement,  and  it 
has  taken  grit  and  determination  to  hang  on  and 
make  good,  but  with  courage  and  work  and  study, 
most  any  person  can  establish  themselves  upon 
this  land  and  can  soon  enjoy  the  glorious  privilege 
of  country  existence,  provided  they  had  some 
capital  with  which  to  make  the  start. 

So  the  hardest  problem  to  solve  in  this  back  to 


BACK  TO  THE  LAND  283 

the  land  movement  is  securing  the  requisite  capital 
with  which  to  get  back.  While  it  does  not  require 
a  large  amount  of  capital,  yet  the  amount  neces- 
sary in  each  individual  case,  is  large  to  him  who 
has  no  means  or  can  give  no  security  to  secure 
the  means  necessary.  There  are  many  who  are 
now  in  position  to  secure  the  capital  requisite  who, 
if  they  put  off  the  day  of  getting  back  to  the  land, 
may,  in  the  meantime,  spend  the  capital  now  at 
their  command.  My  advice  to  such  is  do  not  pro- 
crastinate but  go  at  once. 

Every  person  who  has  not  a  sure  footing  in  the 
city,  in  a  business  sense,  or  reaches  that  stage 
where  he  sees  his  city  footing  slipping  away,  ought 
to  make  every  effort  to  get  back  to  the  land  before 
it  is  too  late,  for  it  is  as  true  as  Holy  Writ,  that 
he  who  once  loses  his  grip  on  city  life  and  busi- 
ness, seldom,  if  ever,  gets  his  grip  again.  Every 
city  is  full  of  men  past  the  middle  age  of  life  who 
have  lost  their  grip.  Their  positions  have  slipped 
away  by  reason  of  age,  incompetency,  or  the 
crowding  out  process,  and  they  are  now  members 
of  that  great  army  of  derelicts  upon  the  sea  of 
city  business,  drifting  hither  and  thither  without 
sail  or  compass,  unable  to  make  a  safe  and  secure 
harbor. 

This  is  the  great  city  tragedy  that  can  only  be 
cleared  away  by  landing  these  derelicts  upon  the 
smaller  farms.  And  the  study  and  adaptation  of 
a  plan  by  which  it  can  be  done  is  the  greatest  and 
most  philanthropic  work  that  can  engage  any  mind 
or  capital.  For  the  doing  of  this  thing  will  re- 
lieve much  of  the  distress  and  misery  of  the  city, 
and  contributes  much  to  the  greatness  of  our 


284       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

country,  for  the  man  who  has  once  lost  hope  and 
courage,  and  can  be  established  back  to  the  land 
where  he  can  regain  them,  and  a  pleasing  exist- 
ence besides,  becomes  a  valuable  citizen,  and  the 
nation  of  valuable  citizens  is  the  most  powerful 
and  prosperous. 

Here  is  a  field  for  the  organization  of  honest 
companies  whose  purpose  is  to  buy  up  vast  tracts 
of  land,  divide  it  up  into  small  tracts,  develop  a 
scheme  by  which  money  can  be  loaned  to  settlers 
upon  plans  similar  to  those  adopted  by  city  Build- 
ing &  Loan  Associations,  who  loan  money  on  such 
liberal  terms  that  thousands  of  city  people  have 
been  enabled  to  purchase  and  pay  for  homes,  and 
which  loans  have  always  been  safe  and  profitable 
investments  to  both  leaner  and  purchaser.  The 
same  thing  is  being  done  successfully  in  Canada 
to-day  and  is  enabling  many  to  get  back  to  the 
land. 

This  proposition  of  getting  back  to  the  land  is 
suitable  and  practicable  to  both  sexes.  There  are 
scores  of  women  to-day  who  have  even  gone  back 
to  the  abandoned  lands  of  the  eastern  states  and 
established  themselves  upon  the  worn-out  soils 
and  rescued  these  soils  and  brought  them  back  to 
themselves  again,  and  these  lands  are  giving  to 
these  settlers  peace,  plenty  and  a  happy  exist- 
ence. 

There  is  scarce  a  community  but  what  there  are 
some  opportunities  for  men  and  women  to  get  back 
to  some  portion  of  the  soil;  if  it  is  nothing  more 
than  a  half  acre  or  more,  it  will  do  much  to  relieve 
distress  occasioned  by  the  city  struggle  for  bread. 

To  get  as  much  as  possible  of  the  struggling 


BACK  TO  THE  LAND  285 

hordes  of  our  city  back  to  the  land  means  not  only 
that  a  large  portion  of  our  people  can 

"Hold  fast  the  golden  mean, 

And  live  contentedly  between 

The  little  and  the  great, 

And  feel  not  the  wants  that  pinch  the  poor," 

but  will  mean  so  much  to  our  nation,  and  will  help 
to  solve  so  many  of  the  problems  that  now  beset 
us. 

But  the  financial  scheme  for  supplying  funds  for 
the  back  to  the  land  movement  must  have  for  its 
basis  a  long  time  payment  plan,  and  yet  should  re- 
quire the  yearly  payment  of  interest  and  a  small 
amount  of  principal.  For  the  first  gives  hope  and 
courage,  and  the  latter  induces  thrift  and  economy. 
The  city  man  going  back  to  the  farm  may  have 
had  no  farm  experience  and  even  if  he  had,  con- 
ditions now  may  be  entirely  different  from  what 
they  were  when  he  did  farm,  so  time  must  be 
given  for  him  to  get  into  touch  with  the  real  busi- 
ness of  farming  so  as  to  avoid  mistakes  and 
hindrances. 

Again  no  company  should  attempt  to  finance  a 
back  to  the  land  movement  without  providing  for 
distribution  of  an  abundance  of  sane  agricultural 
literature  written  in  plain,  easy  to  understand 
English,  and  along  common  sense  lines  by  those 
who  have  had  practical  experience  in  real  soil 
building,  soil  maintenance  and  crop  growing,  for 
false  undigested  theoretically  written  farm  knowl- 
edge would  do  vast  harm  to  the  raw  recruit  upon 
the  land. 

If  farm  experts  of  the  right  sort  could  be  fur- 


286       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

nished  it  would  be  a  miglity  aid,  for  there  is  noth- 
ing like  the  personal  touch  in  this  matter  of  teach- 
ing the  business  of  farming. 

Generally  the  first  question  asked  in  this  back 
to  the  land  movement  is,  Where  shall  we  go  1  We 
have  already  stated  that  there  are  many  oppor- 
tunities to  be  found  in  most  every  section  of  our 
country,  but  the  best  and  most  promising  for  the 
man  not  afraid  of  work  and  study  is  to  be  found 
in  northern  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Michigan  and 
parts  of  Virginia.  While  the  lands  found  in  these 
sections  are  mostly  **cut  over''  lands,  yet  the  soil 
is  rich  and  produces  crops  in  abundance  and  the 
lands  are  cheap.  There  are  vast  tracts  of  land 
in  Virginia  covered  with  timber  that  is  now  being 
cut  off  by  large  milling  companies  that  can  be  pur- 
chased at  from  ten  to  twelve  dollars  per  acre. 
These  lands  are  close  to  railroads,  excellent  high- 
ways and  markets.  The  climate  is  ideal,  rainfall 
is  ample  and  the  soil  is  good  and  suitable  for  fruit 
and  alfalfa  growing,  in  fine,  for  most  any  crop. 
And  there  are  great  possibilities  even  in  the  worn 
soil  districts  of  the  east,  for  the  rebuilding  of  worn 
soil  is  not  a  difficult  problem.  And  our  southland 
should  not  be  overlooked.  In  fine,  the  supply  of 
lands  for  this  back  to  the  land  movement  are  ample 
for  a  large  population  if  we  but  look  about  us  for 
them.  The  main  problem  is  to  finance  the  move- 
ment and  get  the  stream  moving  back  from  the 
city,  and  safeguard  it  with  the  education  and  train- 
ing, and  the  helping  hand  that  will  prevent  the 
stream  from  turning  back  again  towards  the  city. 

It  will  not  turn  back  if  those  who  get  back  to 
the  land  can  once  get  established,  for  no  sane  man 


BACK  TO  THE  LAND  287 

or  woman  who  once  escapes  the  city  grind  and 
struggle  for  bread  and  becomes  attached  to  the 
soil  would  ever  want  to  become  entangled  in  its 
chafing  meshes  again. 

The  government  at  Washington  is  making  the 
effort  to  study  out  and  put  into  execution  a  plan 
of  farm  credits  which  will  help  to  supply  the  req- 
uisite capital  to  our  farmers  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
it  will  in  a  measure  at  least,  also  solve  the  problem 
of  financing  this  back  to  the  land  movement. 

A  pleasing  experience  of  a  young  man  and  his 
wife  who  got  back  to  the  land  came  under  the 
author's  observation  during  the  last  three  years, 
the  reciting  of  which  may  give  the  reader  courage 
and  hope  if  he  or  she  is  contemplating  the  joining 
of  this  movement. 

Five  years  ago  a  girl  friend  of  the  author, 
reared  in  the  country,  married  a  city  young  man 
who  knew  nothing  of  country  life  from  experi- 
ence. They  became  residents  of  a  large  city,  he 
being  in  the  employ  of  a  mercantile  agency.  Two 
years  of  city  married  life  too  plainly  told  them 
that  the  city  struggle  for  bread  would  be  difficult, 
and  if  they  ever  intended  to  secure  a  firm  footing 
in  life,  the  farm  was  the  place  to  secure  it.  They 
were  able  to  secure  funds  sufficient  to  buy  a  small 
farm  of  about  sixty  acres  of  worn-out  soil  situated 
in  southern  Indiana.  The  place  had  been  so  neg- 
lected that  it  was  almost  an  abandoned  farm,  both 
as  to  buildings  and  land.  They  made  the  start, 
bought  the  land  and  began  the  business  of  farming. 
The  young  wife  visited  the  author  a  short  time 
ago  and  she  told  of  their  struggles  in  their  new 
business  of  farming.    How  the  vicissitudes  of  dry 


288       THE  BtJSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

weather,  insect  pest,  worn  soil,  lack  of  money  to 
secure  help,  and  inexperience  had  presented  prob- 
lems for  them  to  solve  that  tested  their  courage 
and  almost  overwhelmed  them.  Her  husband 
knew  nothing  about  handling  farm  tools  and 
horses,  and  she  laughingly  told  how  she  had  ridden 
the  horse  astride,  hitched  to  the  plow,  with  her 
husband  a  hold  of  the  plow  handles  guiding  the 
plow,  and  she  all  the  time  fearful  some  one  would 
see  them  in  this  uncommon  situation.  But  this 
young  couple  had  grit;  they  stuck,  and  with  the 
enthusiasm  of  a  young  child  she  told  how  they  had 
surmounted  all  discouragements  and  had  made 
them  a  pleasant  home  and  had  the  comforts  of  life 
with  the  freedom  of  country  life  and  free  from  the 
uncertainties  of  city  life.  She  said  they  were  hap- 
pier and  freer  from  care  than  they  had  ever  been 
and  would  not  exchange  their  present  condition 
for  the  city  life  again.  That  each  day  upon  their 
little  farm  their  difficult  problems  were  becoming 
less  difficult.  Their  farm  was  being  built  up,  and 
was  reciprocating  for  the  care  given  it.  And  while 
the  author  was  writing  this  little  story  about  the 
young  couple  a  letter  came  from  the  wife  stating 
that  they  were  never  more  intensely  interested  in 
farm  life  than  now,  and  that  her  husband  was  con- 
stantly reading  farm  books  and  that  they  were 
** still  the  happy  country  kids.'' 

This  little  story  also  shows  that  many  city  peo- 
ple can  get  back  to  the  farm  if  they  want  to  get 
back,  and  that  they  can  stay  on  the  farm  when  they 
do  get  back  if  they  really  want  to  stay. 

But  every  one  who  is  contemplating  getting  back 
to  the  land  must  remember  that  if  he  or  she 


BACK  TO  THE  LAND  289 

realizes  their  dream,  it  means  that  they  must  pos- 
sess a  faith,  a  hope,  a  courage  that  brooks  every 
discouragement,  for  discouragements  will  come 
thick  and  fast,  but  the  man  or  woman  with  the 
grip  that  never  loosens  will  achieve  the  success  of 
a  competency,  and  a  better  living  amid  peaceful 
and  pleasing  surroundings  and  an  uplifting  en- 
vironment. 

It  is  said  that  people  do  not  go  back  to  the  land, 
for  fear  of  failure  and  of  land  sharks,  or  the  real 
estate  agent  who  sells  worthless  land  above  its 
value.  The  pitfalls  of  both  these  reasons  can  be 
avoided,  and  our  agriculture  departments  in  both 
state  and  nation  can  furnish  the  remedies.  And 
as  we  have  already  said,  the  right  sort  of  litera- 
ture and  the  expert  government  agent  can  show 
how  to  farm  or  how  to  avoid  the  failures. 

The  good  and  the  bad  lands  can  be  listed  and 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  would  be  settlers, 
but  of  course  there  will  be  failures  in  spite  of  every 
precaution.  And  this  is  true  of  any  business. 
We  can  only  take  the  steps  that  will  reduce  the 
failure  and  other  hindrances  to  the  minimum. 

The  author  recently  read  this  statement  from  a 
writer  upon  the  back  to  the  land  movement.  *  *  Un- 
less you  are  satisfied  to  be  just  an  ordinary  com- 
mon every  day  man  and  willing  to  mingle  with 
that  class  of  people  for  the  rest  of  your  life,  I 
certainly  advise  you  to  keep  out  of  a  pair  of  plow 
handles.  I  never  knew  a  millionaire  farmer  in 
my  life.''  And  then  he  went  on  and  asked  the 
questions  along  this  line.  How  many  farmers  did 
you  ever  know  who  took  trips  to  Europe,  or  the 
seaside,  played  golf,  or  stopped  at  a  high  price 


290       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FAEMING 

hotel,  or,  in  fine,  ever  participated  in  tlie  pleasures 
of  the  rich?  And  well  might  we  ask,  how  many 
city  people  do  these  things  I  For  it  is  a  fact  that 
three-fonrths  of  the  city  people  are  engaged  in  a 
fearful  struggle  for  bread,  who  never  do  or  never 
can  enjoy  the  so  called  pleasures  of  the  rich,  and 
even  in  their  condition  they  are  a  thousand  times 
better  off  that  they  are  not  able  to  do  so. 

We  have  already  shown  that  the  trouble  with 
too  many  people  is  they  think  of  nothing  else  but 
pleasure  seeking.  They  forget  that  our  mission  in 
this  world  is  one  of  service.  That  God  intended 
that  the  most  of  us  should  be  of  the  common  herd 
for,  as  Lincoln  said,  he  made  so  many  of  just  plain 
common  people. 

If  we  would  just  adjust  our  mental  state  along 
the  right  lines  we  would  know  that  there  is  more 
genuine  pleasure  and  joy  in  living  found  right 
among  the  common  every  day  man  upon  the  farm 
than  in  the  city,  and  the  author  would  rather  live 
with,  and  be  one  of  the  common  every  day  men, 
whether  situated  in  the  city  or  country  than  to  be 
one  of,  and  live  with  the  idle  rich  that  flitter  hither 
and  thither  in  search  of  a  happiness  they  do  not 
find,  and  can  never  find  in  the  life  they  are  living. 

Kiches  never  have,  and  never  will  be  the  means 
of  securing  happiness,  for  happiness  is  largely  a 
mental  state.  We  must  adjust  our  minds  right 
before  we  are  first  in  position  to  secure  it.  Then 
having  got  into  the  right  mental  state,  we  will  find 
it  in  simple  living  and  in  a  *' conscience  clear,  a 
mind  at  ease,  and  simple  pleasures  that  always 
please."  Add  to  this  plenty  of  work  amid  pleas- 
ant surroundings,  especially  the  surroundings  that 


BACK  TO  THE  LAND  291 

partake  of  the  business  of  farming,  with  a  suffi- 
cient wage,  and  with  the  idea  impressed  upon 
our  minds  that  our  lives  should  be  lives  of  service, 
we  will  then  find  ourselves  better  off  for  mingling 
with  the  common  every  day  men  and  women,  and 
thank  God  that  we  are  of  the  common  people. 

The  author  has  lived  in  the  rich  corn  belt  of 
Indiana  all  of  the  fifty-seven  years  of  his  life.  He 
was  born  on  a  pioneer  farm  that  had  only  been  set- 
tled for  fifteen  years  before  his  birth.  He  has  ever 
mingled  with  the  farming  class  and  has  known  the 
financial  status  of  hundreds  of  farmers.  He 
knows  how  the  farmers  of  the  corn  belt  are  pros- 
pering. He  knows  of  scores  of  farmers  who  were 
worth  from  twenty-five  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  and  he  knows  that  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  these  farmers  of  our  best  lands  possess  a 
competence,  are  better  housed,  fed,  and  dressed, 
and  have  greater  opportunities  for  possessing  hap- 
piness than  you  find  in  the  city. 

He  is  firm  in  the  faith  that  the  greater  oppor- 
tunity to  find  peace,  plenty  and  happiness,  is  to 
be  found  on  the  farm.  He  concedes  that  many  will 
not  be  able  to  find  it  there,  neither  will  they  likely 
find  it  in  the  city. 

After  all  that  you  can  say  upon  this  subject  it 
resolves  itself  up  to  the  man  or  woman.  No  one 
can  tell  you  how  to  get  back  to  the  land  so  that 
you  can  just  go  out  and  lay  your  hand  upon  the 
opportunity  of  better  living  and  just  stop  there. 
You  are  still  the  architects  of  your  own  fortune. 
The  way  may  be  laid  out  before  you  so  you  can 
see  clearly  down  the  road  to  the  reality  beyond, 
but  you  must  go  down  the  road  yourself  and  pos- 


292       THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING 

sess  it.  And  you  may  find  the  road  long  and 
dusty.  If  you  have  not  the  qualities  that  achieve 
and  possess,  you  will  surely  succumb  to  discour- 
agement and  fall  by  the  wayside.  But  the  fight- 
ing man  or  woman  will  achieve  and  possess. 


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